Roy Fairchild lives and spends most of the year working in his home in the country. Although he travels throughout Europe to find new sources of inspiration, this tranquil setting is key to his creativity as an artist. Fairchild is influenced by the style of the painters of the Renaissance and he visits Italy regularly to observe frescos, tapestries and paintings and analyze the techniques with which they were created. Upon leaving school at sixteenso he could train as a technical illustrator, Fairchild went on to earn a degree in graphic design. After finishing his education he set up his own studio and shortly found out that it was difficult to make a living from his own work and for several years he worked under the name of Woodward doing illustrations for record sleeves, advertisements and books, as well as decorative serigraphs and lithographs to support himself. Fairchild eventually established enough financial security to be able to end his work with commercial illustrations and devote his time to his own painting and printmaking which he does under his family name, Fairchild.