My paintings and drawings have visually documented my thoughts, feelings and experiences since my early teens, although I've been aware of my love for art especially painting, as far back as I can remember. My favourite relevant memory of this is of my primary school art teacher asking us to paint a picture of the severn bore from a photo, in a Van Gogh style. I can remember enjoying the play with colour and being the only person in the class who painted the bore from the three dimensional perspective. I have always loved the rich inspiration to be gained from dreams and nightmares, and from a young age, I would eat cheese to try to provoke vivid dreaming of long intricate experiences envolving taste, touch and colour, most of which I still remember to this day. I feel dreams can be a combination of abstracted emotional memories combined with observational imagery which can be drawn upon and rendered physically through painting and sculpture.
For me, painting is the purest form of expression. Mastering different techniques in reproducing my mental imagery has given me an efficient conduit from my sub-concious. I have studied and appreciate the work of the surrealists, colourists, expressionists, "naivists" and abstract artists. In some of my earlier surrealist styles I've played around with predicting my future and emotional state at that time, and I've used expressionist styles to represent different joys, pleasures, anxieties and depressions. The more emotionally detatched approach of abstract art led to my deeper exploration of texture and form using different tools to scrape serations through thick paint giving a more hallucinatory and tactile aspect to my work.
After completing my A-levels and art foundation in Cheltenham I moved to Holland for six months and soon after sought inspiration travelling through Canada, Mexico, Guatemala, Belize and Honduras. I've also regularly travelled Europe, including the Czeck Republic, Italy, France and Spain. I amassed much sketch book work during this time, much of which I am yet to convey in paintings, although a good deal of my work still represents my different experiences from around the world; mushroom picking in the Mexican jungle to views from the window of my room in Gouda, Holland.
I currently work from a studio in Bristol in the South West of England which is a city rich in culture and proactive artistic movement, not least of which is the Temporary Autonomous Art collective of which I am a salient member and a regular contributor and exhibitor www.bristolinsurgentart.co.uk.
My latest and most saleable style reflects a more mature understanding of myself. The clear figurative abstractions intend to provoke emotion memory of places or feelings towards yourself, people, animals, politic and friends. Often I will find something out about myself after staring at a finished painting that I had not realised during its creation. In a similar manner you may discover something about yourself while introspectively analysing a dream.
I believe my favourite paintings of colourful expressions and abstractions give figurative suggestions and location which create meaning from a surreal imagination.
EXHIBITIONS:
The Street.
Bristolian cafe: Bristol.
Raves.
The Chelsea Inn: Bristol.
D.M.T Record shop: Bristol.
The Easy Internet Cafe: Bristol.
T.A.A squat Exhibition: Hackney London.
T.A.A squat Exhibition: The old police traffic headquatters Bristol.
T.A.A squat Exhibition: The old Pring and Hill building Bristol.
The Rummer Hotel: St Nicks market Bristol.
T.A.A squat Exhibition: Islington London
T.A.A squat Exhibition: Reclamation Yard Bristol.
T.A.A squat Exhibition: Victorian Meat Market Manchester.
The Invisable Circus: The old Audi Garage Bristol.
T.A.A squat Exhibition: Old Market Bristol.
T.A.A squat Exhibition: Old street London.
HOME
With huge squatted warehouse spaces prducing art for free festivals, free parties, street performances and graffiti art. The T.A.A (Temporary Autonomous Art is an underground collective from England of which I am part of, we organise three day squat art exhibitions which include performance art, bands, films, sculpture, paintings, in a relaxed atmosphere with a bar cafe. The idea behind the T.A.A is to obtaine a large enough space which is open to all artists, any artists can contact us or just come down and make what they will of the space. The exhabitions often turn into around three weeks of exhabitions and studio space, until eviction. The T.A.A has also travelled extensively around Europe exhibiting in Germany, Romania and Itally.