Born in the industrial North of England during the Second World War, Harold James Cleworth quickly developed a love for the aesthetics of machinery and began painting the local "Orwellian" landscpe. When he was only a teenager, several one man shows were held in local pubs and libraries. After graduating from the prestigious Manchester College of Art in 1967, he moved to London to work for Decca Records, illustrating the first album covers for the Rolling Stones, the Who, and other new groups. But growing frustrated with the London scene, a trip to California convinced him to stay and begin his career as a fine artist, choosing automobiles, his first love since childhood, as the subject. A series of posters followed, amongst them the black 300 SL Gullwing Mercedes, which rapidly became the most popular automotive image on the market. After the press discovered him, stories appeared in all the automotive journals. AutoWeek dubbed him "the painter laureate of the car" and the LA times ran his life story. Cleworth has firmly established himself as one of the world's leading 'auto-biographers' whose trademark of super-realism has become instantly recognizable and whose twenty year dedication to the subject has proved enormously successful.