Biography
I have always been interested in drawing and painting the human form, especially the face.
Since I was Sixteen I have been painting in oils. I was inspired by the commercial American artist Bill Pruitt when I was young and then started by just doing commercial celebrity portraits then slowly moving into more expressionistic detailed works in my college and university education.
In the last three years I have been developing a style which is close to a hyper realistic style in painting, which I create works of a heightened clarity on the given subject, in my case the human face.
My passion in the photo-real had increased after seeing Chuck Close’s giant heads originally, and even non figurative painters like Richard Estes and Charles Bell which depict the everyday and simplicity of life. This really intrigues my art in which why I paint my work with a lot of passion for quite natural but beautiful snapshot paintings.
I paint my pieces section by section, as it gives extra clarity and care over small areas of the paintings surface, which if painted more traditionally you wouldn’t get the overall sharp focus I’m looking for. This is a long but rewarding process... I do look at natural expression also and crop my imagery quite sudden to get a realistic look of a situation.
I like to concentrate on the human form a lot, because I believe people like to analyze the human condition for the good and bad points in general. Whether I paint a grittier real or ‘nicer on the eye’ subject the viewer is always intrigued in seeing elements on the hyper real thrown amongst it. Scrutinising detail is something as viewers I want to force to look on my work as it if was a map or landscape, and to give a sense of exploration when looking at my images. I want to throw the audience in the voyeur perspective of life.
I keep in touch with my overall realism style and like to blow things out of proportion with levels of detail and selected importance to the given photograph.
I can range from the out and out banal and gritty to the quite basic and mundane beauty of the human subject, whatever makes the most compelling piece of art.
I always want to add a cutting edge of harsh realism to my pieces that which sometimes subtly shocks the viewer. As this is which represents the realistic interpretation of the way the human eye sees most things. And harshly cropping and heightend imperfection gives a sense of enhanced truth about the image in which you stare at. Also my new work takes on abstract forms, this to create a randomality of the mind to contrast that of the super realism. This to show reality in its boldest and harshest way, the fluctuation between complete freak abstraction to scrutinized detail. acting as our own intuition making us feel about an image at the same time studying the scene.
My new work relates to themes of photorealism aswell as artist inspirations from Francis Bacon, Gerhard Richter and Lucien Freud. Recent works have explored different painting techniques such as dry blurring, dripping, scratching scraping and mixing both oil and acrylic paints together. This alongside my traditional detailed style I wish to pursue combining effects creating intuitive and deeper projects in the future. Relating through paint the bizzare and beauty of our own inescapable existance.
I have also been in numerous competitions and a selection of group shows. Such as the Royal society of portrait painters 2009, SAA Artist of the year 2009, The London Group ‘Open Exhibition’ 2009 and the Royal institute of oil painters 2008 which I won 1st prize in the Windsor and Newton award.
I have had some publications in certain magazines and websites such as EmptyKingdom.com, Blue Canvas magazine, MORPH magazine article interviews, Fine-Art-Asylum.DiviantArt.com and Artists & illustrators Magazine.