About
It all starts with inspiration. Feeling inspired by the way the water moves, the milk swirling in your tea, how a shadow presents itself across the path. How can I turn this into art?
Throughout my paintings and crafts, there seems to be a general theme of anatomy; the shadows cascading down the muscular statues, the bizarre, beautiful insects and small creatures - each painting is different in their own wonderful way.
To begin my creative journey, I’d have to go back to being little again; it started with glitter glues, foam sheets, stickers, gel pens and even the weird side of being little, such as looking for interesting bugs in the garden, owning a small butterfly sanctuary, and being deathly scared of wasps (this hasn’t really changed). The mere thought of a new packet of stickers and I was jumping for joy, but occasionally a bunged up glitter glue tube would suddenly reopen by exploding across the table and all of my stickers…
During my school years, art seemed to blend into a grey area - no specific theme, no thorough enjoyment and so on; however, behind the scenes, the art continued. This included extra art clubs, filling in canvases at home, and redecorating my bedroom walls with handpainted stripes?
Anyway, after my school years, I decided to take up Fine Art at college, learning Lino cutting, engraving, dabbling with oil paints for the first time, life drawing and more. Unfortunately, this college really wasn’t for me, but upon my leaving - Covid happened, and was left with no choice but to stay at home anyway. During this time, I decided to rekindle my love for art with my first acrylic statue painting on a 50x50cm canvas - “Thinking Man”. One lead to another, and along came “Caesar”, a 50x70cm canvas, then eventually I was commissioned for the first time! One of my favourite creations so far… “Perseus and Medusa” on a 50x50cm canvas. The time, dedication, frustration, awe and patience this piece took was rather arduous; however, it was all worth it in the end - I still look to this painting with such love and inspiration to take on to my future paintings.
Recently, I decided to combine two different mediums and styles. I completed a piece called “Blue David”, a 42x59cm portrait of the Statue of David completed with realism style, in oil paint, but with a background of multiple shades of blue and gold in acrylic paint in an abstract manner. After weeks and weeks of sketching and teaching myself how to use oil paints again after a 5 year gap, I can securely say I was rather chuffed with the outcome (not to toot my own horn).
Whilst completing my portraits of famous statues, I have also been teaching myself alternate styles of painting, such as iridescent butterflies and dragonflies, palette knives on small canvases, fine line architectural drawings, abstract canvases and now small crafts, such as painting small images and patterns on rocks, then varnishing them for a sleek and shiny finish.
Behind the scenes of my slightly eclectic portfolio, I have taken up a Higher National Diploma in Graphic Design which I am thoroughly enjoying - safe to say my career path will be sticking to a creative route for the time being!
