THE paintings of retired policeman John Edwards are familiar to many people.

They are on display in shops and galleries all over Britain, not to mention Australia, Canada and Japan.

His gentle, humourous portraits are also on sale at Fearnside Art on Belle Vue Terrace, Malvern, the art and craft materials shop run by his wife Rumana.

Known as The Nines series, the pictures are instantly recognisable. All feature a line-up of nine people, and usually a dog, depicting personalities and professionals such as actors, lawyers, golfers, cricketers and TV chefs.

Full of detail and meticulously researched, they have a wide appeal and now feature on greeting cards and mugs.

"I really enjoy doing the research for each picture and putting meaningful details in the backgrounds," said John.

For a picture of doctors and nurses, he contacted Claire Rayner and copied the precise details of period nurse uniforms from a museum in Edinburgh. One of the nurses in the picture is Claire herself.

For his fishermen picture, John visited an antique fishing tackle shop in Bewdley. He painted his fire brigade picture after persuading firefighters to don old-fashioned uniforms at the Fire Brigade Museum in Essex.

The Audition features the likes of Laurence Olivier, Noel Coward, Alec Guinness and John Guilgud, while many will recognise the famous faces of TV chefs in his picture Cooks.

John began by doing cartoons for Police magazine. A picture of nine old-fashioned bobbies, The Night Watch, for the Police Federation, caught the eye of a London publisher John Barrett, also a former policeman.

He spotted the potential and appeal of John's paintings and asked him to do more. John's prints quickly proved popular and thousands have now been sold.

John often paints at exhibitions, with people crowding round to watch.

"People ask me if I've ever considered painting lawyers or fishermen for example and then I start researching another picture," he said.

One lady asked where the dog was in one picture he was painting. She pointed out that all his pictures had featured a dog and, realising she was right, he got a book about Jack Russells and has since added a dog to all his paintings.

"It's nice to know that people like my pictures so much. I certainly enjoy painting them," said John.

John's work can be seen at Fernside Arts, where a one-month sale starts today (Friday), with up to 50 per cent off selected artists' materials.