TEDDY McDONALD

An autodidactic contemporary artist, Teddy established his professional practice in 2011 and achieved international recognition in 2015 when Ed Sheeran played his art guitar in over 18 countries during the Multiply world tour. The following year, GQ magazine profiled Teddy as 'The Artist to Watch'.

A collaboration with members of the British royal family and a Range Rover art car followed and Ed Sheeran played a second art guitar on the Divide world tour and during his headline performance at The Glastonbury Festival.

In 2022, headwear custom painted by Teddy reached the summit of Mount Everest and was considered to be 'The Highest Art on Earth' by The BBC.

Many of the artist's influences are autobiographical and his paintings and drawings are easily identifiable as naive and loosely-rendered works in acrylic or oil pastel featuring recurring symbolism and essential lines notably of Italian life, nature and the female form.

Considered by many of his international collectors a contemporary of artists like Gieneve Figgis and Wes Lang, across Teddy's work there are at times subtle references or elements inspired by Alexander Calder, David Hockney, Ashley Bickerton, Henri Matisse and Giorgio Morandi.  Teddy also acknowledges inspiration from mid-century to present day Italian design and Roman history  in general.

Teddy wishes to thank Lapo Elkann for his patronage and placing his work in a significant private art collection alongside original works by Jean-Michel Basquiat, Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein and many Italian contemporary masters.  He also extends his thanks to Dylan Jones OBE and Neil Hamilton for their valuable contributions.

Teddy considers himself a hybrid artist choosing to work from locations in the rural Cotswolds and Italy. He is also a musician and plays guitar, occasionally in a live band.