1950, Gareth Hawker was born in Birmingham, UK, of Welsh parents.
1968-71, studied Art at the Byam Shaw School, London.
1971-74, post-graduate study at the Royal Academy Schools, London where he gained several prizes.
1974, he moved to Norwich, where he was given the Greenshields Award. This enabled him to paint full-time for two years.
After a number of part-time jobs, he sustained himself by teaching several hours a week at an adult education centre in Norwich.
By 1993 he was receiving enough commissions for portrait paintings to be able to devote himself entirely to portraiture. This took him to various parts of the UK and Europe, and to the USA.
In recent years he has been able to concentrate on the painting of belly dancers, which he finds to be ideal subjects for the study of form, movement and colour.
His pictures may be seen on his website:
www.garethhawker.com