David Hinchliffe has long had plans to write a book. The work remains unfinished, but the title is down: The Art of Politics and the Politics of Art.

Ego is one of the many similarities between the two fields, says Mr Hinchliffe, until recently the deputy mayor of Brisbane and now a globe-trotting painter whose New York City solo show last month sold out.

"Political egos are really ferocious," Mr Hinchliffe said. "The artistic ego is much more fragile - and much more subtle."

Mr Hinchliffe, who expressed dismay over "petty politics" when he quit as a Labor city councillor in 2011 after 23 years - including four as former mayor Campbell Newman's second-in-charge - is headed to London via Paris for more shows this month.

After that, it is on to art fairs in Singapore and Hong Kong.

"It's all come together incredibly quickly and far beyond my expectations," he said.

Mr Hinchliffe's subjects are, quite fittingly, cities - in particular, the street scenes, skylines, and architectural nuances that characterise urban life.

A rebuke from an art critic 15 years ago pushed him away from his earlier love of country landscapes. He realised, given his day job, that cities were part of his DNA.

"As a councillor your environment are streets and footpaths and parks. I understand that after two-and-a-half decades in the job. I understand... the nuts of bolts of what makes cities," he said.

"So now instead of tightening those nuts and bolts, I simply paint them."

City councillor-turned-artist David Hinchliffe outside his New York City studio. ( Supplied: David Hinchliffe )

There is a lot of energy in the New York City paintings, he says, a natural result of the city's personality.

"London is much more of a focus on architecture. The Paris stuff is very romantic - I do think I want to be careful that it's not too cheesy. Every time you turn a corner there is another painting asking to be painted," he said.

"There is a chaos to the painting of Havana that probably reflects the chaos of that city."

Brisbane, a city described recently as both the hippest in the country and - by philosopher Alain de Botton - one of the ugliest, combines several of those visual characteristics: a little bit of energy, some nice old buildings ("ones that managed to escape the destruction of the 60s and 70s") and a lot of sunlight.

Now two-years removed from public office, Mr Hinchliffe says he has disengaged from politics due to frustration. He does not read newspapers or follow television or radio news.

"It's a terrible admission, but I tend to look the other way."

He has described his four years as Mr Newman's deputy - achieved via a power-sharing deal when Mr Hinchliffe was Labor leader - as the toughest of his political career, calling the now-Queensland Premier his "cell mate" in a "glass prison".

Mr Hinchliffe's life post-politics is not a regular one of consultancy or lobbying, activities he describes as "soul-destroying". He is content to simply paint, something he does "as energetically as Campbell makes decisions".

But his new career is not so different to his old one.

"I have moved a world away from politics, but I'm still in the world of cities."