English-born painter Harold Cleworth has had a career that makes those of most artists look decidedly tame. How many artists can count among their customers Jay Leno, Nicolas Cage, John DeLorean and even the Rolling Stones? Safe to say it would be very few – Cleworth may even find himself in a minority of one. But regardless of this, the most impressive thing about Cleworth is the variation that his career has involved from his beginnings creating industrial works based on the rugged look of home in Leigh, near to Manchester in England.

Cleworth’s early works involved painting the machinery of Leigh’s factories and the industrial neighborhoods, and this gave him a strong feeling for depicting machinery that would carry on into his later work along with strength in his work that gained him his first break – acceptance at the Manchester College of Art. Going there taught him an extra refinement, but his talent had already been firmly honed and he would go on to meet some American tourists in London. This led him to his most important decision – that he would go to America to indulge his passion for cars.

It was while in America that Cleworth was headhunted by the Rolling Stones to paint for one of their album covers, and one for The Who. Since then the quality and the value of his work has just kept increasing, and anyone who owns a Cleworth original need never worry about finding a down payment for a mortgage again.