Afghanistan photo-journalist, Tony Blair's official Downing Street photographer, now artist in residence at Wick Court in the Berkeley Vale – John Hudson finds out more about the extraordinary life of artist Jacob Sutton

Aclose encounter with al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and a long series of even closer encounters with Downing Street in the last days of Tony Blair have given Jacob Sutton a taste for the country life.

Whether it will last, who can say? But for the past three years he has been soaking up life on half a dozen farms in various parts of the country, the last few months of them at Wick Court, Arlingham, down by the Severn in the Berkeley Vale.

Not that it was always a peaceful life. That last farm is a place where city children can learn to be farmers for a week, and as its unofficial artist in residence, Jacob often found himself in the thick of it.

But at Wick Court and elsewhere he found time to wander off alone and try to be part of the animals' world, as much as that was possible.

And the result of his efforts can soon be enjoyed at a Cirencester art gallery, with about 40 paintings for sale with prices from £500 upwards.

Some would say his animal studies are naive, though it takes more than artlessness to produce arresting images such as these.

Innocence might be the most striking attribute of his beasts and birds, but there is also humour, a zest for life, inquisitiveness and sometimes sadness about those faces. His hens seem a particularly scatty bunch.

The sky, clouds and birds in flight are also part of the formula, with their scope for portraying changes in the light and weather.

With so much of his time over the past three years spent in the open air in West Wales and the West Country, Jacob certainly knows a storm cloud when he sees one.

He also specialises in still lifes with flowers, and these are very definitely works that know what they're doing and where they're going.

What is for sure is that he knows his way around the sticks more than he used to. Before he came across Farmer Dai at Hill Farm in Pembrokeshire, he would drive around looking for fields with sheep to sketch and paint.

The problem was, when he found them, they just ran away – until he discovered he could bribe them with a couple of loaves.

"Once I stopped giving them bread they would just stare at me. I quickly grabbed a large brush and pushed it into some white oil paint... Soon they got bored and started to move away, but out would come the bread again...

"At first I could only paint very quickly, but after a few days they would see me coming up the hill – the bread man!"

Jacob – Jake to his friends, but not to be confused with a rather more high-profile artist named Jake Sutton – started painting about 20 years ago, originally sketching and painting life around the cafes of Paris and wine bars of South London.

"French women will do whatever it takes to look good," he says. "They're happy for you to look at them and draw them. Sadly, the same can't be said about many British women."

In October 2001 he went to live in Afghanistan and spent more than three years with local people in Kabul, putting together a portfolio of charcoal drawings of everyday life in and around the city.

It was the month after 9/11, and that was significant. "That was such an amazing time, an event that jolted the whole world and put Russia, China, America, Libya, everywhere on the same side," he says.

"There was all this talk about Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda high command being in hiding in the mountains of Afghanistan, and suddenly that was a mystery I wanted to investigate. I'd no wish to find bin Laden, but to discover what this place Afghanistan was all about. I thought if I didn't go I'd always regret it, so off I went, even though I had no idea where I was."

Having spent years as a photo-journalist, Jacob took a television camera with him and was there when US and Afghan forces raided al-Qaeda's mountain caves in Tora Bora.

"They were in machine gun nests up there, and suddenly the bullets were whistling around me," he recalls. "I was petrified, scared out of my wits, and all I could do was hurl myself into a ditch.

"But the Afghan people were the most friendly, generous and warm-hearted I've ever come across. They'd be so pleased you'd come over the mountains to see them, and feed you in a way they couldn't afford. They loved to watch me at work with my charcoals, and I did some voluntary drawing classes – for girls, as well as boys, even though they were not allowed to go to school."

When he returned to Britain in 2006, Jacob's career took perhaps the most bizarre turn of all.

"I had got to know Tony Blair before he was elected to Parliament in 1983," he recalls. "I was working as a photographer in South London, and someone told me about a chap he knew who was standing in the election and wanted a picture for a flier.

"It was Blair, and I did the job. They both looked very young. Tony Blair was just about 30; Cherie was in her late 20s, but could almost have been a 16-year-old schoolgirl.

"Back in Britain after Afghanistan, I wrote to him and reminded him of that meeting. To my surprise, I was invited in for a chat with his people, and the upshot was that from then until he stepped down in the following year, I was his personal photographer and official artist to 10 Downing Street."

Jacob worked with his son Claude on the project, with an emphasis on the behind-the-scenes life of one of the most powerful politicians in the world.

It also offered an insight into Blair's private life and its influence on his role as both Prime Minister and family man, from tense Middle East assignments to relaxing at Chequers with those closest to him.

Remembering the idealistic young couple he had first encountered in 1983, Jacob was particularly moved by his last day with the Blairs.

"It was June 27, 2007, Tony Blair's departure from Downing Street," he recalls. "As usual, all the photographers were penned in on the other side of the street from No 10 – apart from me.

"I was right there with them, and just before he left, he walked right over towards me. He wanted me to have the last picture."

There's a country mile between creatures on the farm and political animals. But one way or another, Jacob Sutton always seems to get the best out of his subjects.

Jacob Sutton's solo show is at the Dollar Street Gallery, 34-36 Dollar Street, Cirencester GL7 2AN from September 7 to October 2. Tel: 01285 651072.