User Account

What is your favourite film of all time?

What a difficult question, I'm not sure I can answer this! I find film very inspiring and many films have influenced my practise. In terms of my art I have been looking a lot at the film 'Tree of Life', I found the shots in this incredibly interesting and unique and have been thinking of ways to interweave these ideas into my own work.

Of the past 12 months a film that has been very memorable to me is Drive. I saw this at the cinema and it was just an amazing experience, visually the film is incredible with its pastiche of the 80s, the soundtrack is a perfect accompaniment and the storyline is exciting, ridiculous and thrilling. I think this film was very underrated and deserved a lot more recgonition.

What music are you currently listening to and why?

I listen to a variety of music especially when I'm painting. I often flick between listening to the radio and then my staple collection of music such as Brandt Brauer Frick, The Beatles, Fleet Foxes, Rival Consoles, Justice and Tool to name a few. I love listening to a variety of music rather than just one genre.

Which living artists do you most admire and why?

Michael Borremans - not only is his skill impeccable but he continually strives to push the boundaries of his subject matter, by experimenting with cutting off parts of the body, wrapping shiny plastic around his models and creating pieces which are uncomfortable and often disturbing. I also greatly admire his work ethic, he is so determined and driven. There is a really interesting documentary on youtube about his work and way of working here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhhUmwmlMtc Anyone that's interested in contemporary painting should check this out.

Which deceased artist do you most admire and why?

Van Gogh - I think his achievements in painting were absolutely incredible. For example even though he would often paint inanimate objects such as boots and chairs, he was able to inject so much life into these pieces. I also admire his sheer determination and energy and love the fact that he would do a painting a day, he had so many ideas and had so much to get out, it's incredibly inspiring.

Which exhibition that you have visited made the greatest impact on you and why?

There have been lots of great shows in London over the past few months, the Lucian Freud and Gerhard Richter to name a few. But I recently revisited the National Gallery and saw Van Gogh's paintings as part of their permanent impressionist collection and I was just blown away by his work. There weren't many of his pieces on show but they were just amazing. The intensity of the colour is incredible and his use of brush strokes to emphasise and distort reality literally gave me goosebumps. It has made me want to go and see his museum in Amsterdam again and I plan to do this over the summer.

What is the question you get asked most frequently about your work and how do you answer it?

What do you paint on and why?

I have painted on perspex since leaving university and came across it by a happy accident. I was working on small, very smooth canvases and was actually using a piece of perspex as a palette. I made a mark on the perspex and thought that looks really interesting and then a few weeks later went to a life drawing session and took a piece of perspex with me. I absolutely fell in love with the way the paint sat on the surface and the luminocity I could achieve with thin layers of paint. I have been working on perspex for about 4 years now and still find it fascinating.

What / who inspired you to be an artist?

I have always loved art and knew that I wanted to do something related to art when I grew up. But never really realised that you could be an artist, that kind of thing felt so very seperate and unachievable. But my tutors from my foundation course really encouraged me and I guess could see that I had potential. One of the tutors, Rob actually said to me 'you're a painter' and it clicked instantly, from then I knew and decided to work really hard to try and become an artist. I also had a tutor from university who really inspired me, gave me confidence and pushed me. I think these people have been integral to my practise and my work ethic.

Can you tell us about where you make your art and what if any the significance of this location is?

I have a stuidio in South East London, on a small street filled with artists, designers and musicians called Havelock Walk.

Working in London has been really important to me simply because of the amount of opportunities there are, there is so much creativity here which makes london a great and at times difficult place to work.

I think it's really important to have a space to work, whether it be at home or in a seperate studio. I found that when I worked in my living room, it quickly became quite soul destroying having to pack everything away, not having actual space for things, so getting a studio was quite important to me as it gave my work validation.

Working on Havelock Walk is great because it's got a great balance of having the privacy and being able to be cut off and work in my own space but also the community feel of being with other artists and knowing that you're all in the same boat.

What do you like most about being an artist?

The freedom to do exactly what I want. It's a very self indulgent practise but I know when I get into my studio I'm creating works that I find interesting, I'm not having to adhere to certain briefs or rules it's quite simply what I want to do. I think painting is endlessly fascinating and I love the fact that my life is so much about being an artist.

What is your greatest achievement as an artist to date?

I think it's that I've worked really hard to establish myself in London as an artist. It's hugely competitve working as an artist in London, so the fact that I've got myself a studio and have shown in various shows across London has been quite an achievement.

What are your plans for the coming year?

I'm working on a new series of work with 3 models, the idea is to create really complex compositons, which look at depth, line, form, shape and colour. I plan to work on this series over the next year and then hopefully have a solo show in london in late 2012/early 2013 to show these pieces.

I'm also the founder of the art group Repre and we are hositng our first show in May 2012, so that is a big milestone this year.

I'm also exhibiting with DegreeArt in their London 20:12 show as part of the olympics and also will be exhibiting with them at the Affordable Art Fair.

So in a nut shell the aim is to do lots of work and lots of shows.