Artist Charles Willmott studied at the Birmingham College of Art in the 1960s, but worked in advertising for most of the ‘70s and ‘80s. A trip to the Far East in the late ‘80s inspired a return to painting, and he held his first one-man show in 1991, which featured Sumo wrestling as subject. After an encounter with principal dancer in the Royal Ballet, Miyako Yoshida, Willmott developed a fascination with the natural grace and beauty of the dancer, and particularly with the female form. In 1996, he was invited to create a series of paintings with the Royal Shakespeare Theatre; one of the paintings from the series was a finalist for the prestigious Garrick Milne Prize.