Guy Taplin b. 1939

Guy Taplin was born in 1939. After leaving school at 15, he spent five years working for the GPO, as a messenger boy. Following two years national service he had a variety of jobs including meat porter, hairdresser, lifeguard, lorry driver, window cleaner, market trader, fashion designer and maker, gardener and bird keeper in Regents Park.

Whilst working in Regents Park Guy taught himself to make wooden birds from driftwood, using basic materials. He entered the Essex Coast exhibition, and this led to others at the Victoria and Albert Museum, Contemporary Applied Arts and many other galleries in Britian, the USA, Holland, Japan and Germany.

Guy’s work has been an absolute revolation, it appears in Tate Britain and the Royal Collection. Private collectors include Jacqueline Onassis , Michael Palin, Jon Snow and Robert Mitchum.