Fred Apps

Fred started as an artist when he was about eight, copying pictures from The Beano and other comics and childrens encyclopedia. From then on he could think of nothing except to be an artist.

There was no art tradition in his family (his dad was a bricklayer) or at his school. He went to Rochester Art College then into advertising then book illustration so has spent most of his life in the commercial side of art. As to why he started his art practice, he cannot imagine doing anything else. Brushes, paint, paper, canvas, ink, it’s a world he has always loved.

Fred has spent many years in advertising and publishing, illustrating many children’s books. He has had a number of local exhibitions one of which has been running for three years in Plaistow Library and a paid residency at the Expo in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park which ran for two years. Fred recently completed an illustration commission for a American publisher and is now working for an Austrian publisher.