5 days solid in the studio.

Current work, April 2011.

so im working on these 5ft paintings for the first official 'Visionists' exibition. Its a challenging look on the idea that life is a dream, and the idea of causing impossible acts to become possible by giving them a physical existence..... above is a sneak look at 'you are the whitnes, but i still die alone' a painting the imortalises my death befor it has happened, elaborating on the ide of dieing alone even if someone is in the room.ofcorse all there is to it atm is the outline and some early stages of glaze. more to come......

Imagination in the chambers of my mind.

Oil on canvas. Dec 2010.

On the edge of reality.

Oil on canvas. Early 2010.

The Imortality of Generations.

Acrylic on Canvas. Early 2010.

Study for a portrait no.9

Dry Brushed Study for the portrait series, Late 2010.

A Dream of My Own Death. dated late 2008

First may i say that this is annalitcaly correct (haha). This was an exloration of death, in my own mind and nude. Me being the nude subject, it was a brake away and one of the final pieces of the 'Who Cares' series, which was exploring my self image and how materialism and conformaty makes you self conciouse. Think what you like because at the end of the day Who Cares!

A Trip Back In Time. First Ever Life Drawing in Paint

A blast from the past might i say. This was my first exploration of human form. dated early 2007.

A self portait vissioned during a dream of a car crash

Acrylic on canvas

Passion 1

Acrylic on canvas

a few observational drawings

Black and White Possca

John Moores 26 painting prize

so my painting 'The formalities of one self, portrayed by others.' is being entered into the 2010 John Moores exhibition. What an achievment that will be. show your support. all of the images will be uploaded after the exhibition.
The John Moores painting prize is a prestigeouse art award help at liverpool walker gallery and such greats like Francis Bacon and Lucean Freud have won it in the Past. Fingers crost hey.

STAGE 1 ENTRY HAS BEEN COMPLETED. ROLE ON STAGE 2!

a few illustrationsof mine to view

2010 march exhibition work

so the work is on facial expressions. by the end of it i hope to have a large amount of oil paintings adn photographs to exhibit on the subject. here is the first officialy chosen image that will be used as a point of reference for the paintings.

my pitch for this piece of work is as follows....

What is visual communication? If we take the words involved, visual; this is to see using your eyes. Communication, this is to form and understand using semiotics to something or some one. The most primitive form of visual communication is body language! Were born with the natural ability to communicate using gestures and facial expressions, all humans are able to do it.
I propose an idea, to recognise the function of facial expressions and explore them further. I want to be able to brake down the form of communication we all know and recognise and turn it into something with a greater meaning.

I’m always fascinated by the way in which artists through history have documented faces; three in particular have stricken out above the rest.

Francis Bacon.

I like the idea of Bacon, his work relates to what im doing by the way he explored images further than there original meaning. I like this idea, of exploring things further from there basic idea and creating something new from a thing that is old.

Pablo Picasso.

When asked what is design, the simple answer is problem solving. People don’t normally associate Picasso as being a designer but if you think about it he solved problems using a fine art process. He took images and explored them beyond there natural reality, creating an alter existence in his work. He used the process of exploring images further to brake there concept. This is going to be a strong factor throughout my work.

Nan Golding.

Nan intrigues me. Here is a person surrounded by abuse and drugs causing self destruction within herself. Over a long period of time she documented her face, showing her in bad states, good states and travelling. The most appealing thing to this is how over time things appear to change. I like this idea.

The work.

I am going to document my own facial expressions and selected people around me; these will be both staged and natural. Then after development I will produce 10-15 large paintings that will be exhibited in Peckham, Shoreditch and oxford. The paintings will be composed from the observational images that have been developed into subjective forms via a series of drawings. Braking down the formal elements in each picture and rearranging them in an impressionistic way. Creating art that has concept and hidden meanings based on my observations and research into self portraits. This will visually communicate my perception on facial expressions and self portraits, the end outcome is unpredictable due to the fact that in the development and exploration stages, taking the right risks could lead me into any direction. All that is definite is there will be work produced for an exhibition.

Self Portrait.

Most subjects of a self portrait portray the artists impression of themselves, looking deeply into there own human psyche. Upon researching this subject I have discovered that most artists have an egotistical view of their own image. In contrast to this the artists with low self esteem show no vanity within their paintings or images.
If we look at Albrecht Durer self portrait at 28, it is a classic example of an egotistical artist. The man himself has the utter most ability to create any image he wants by the medium of paint; the technical skill behind this painting is phenomenal but looking at the image closely you begin to see what Durer was really painting. The position on which he has placed himself within the pictorial plain is central, leaving very little space surrounding him; this characteristic places him as the main focal point of the painting. He has used symmetry in his face to create pure beauty, making himself attractive to his own taste. With the broad shoulders he has painted a fur coat showing of his fashion, it’s evident that the man thought highly of himself. The use of light on the figure itself demonstrates the great importance of which he has within the image. On closer examination of Durers work it appears as if he is trying to recreate a godly persona (God is in the detail). Looking at pictures of Jesus you can see similarities in the poses and the confidence being portrayed. This may be seen as trying to create false power but symbolising power and authority at the same time.
However, in contrast to this Francis Bacon’s series of self portraits showed his disillusioned image of his imperfections. He illustrates this by disfiguring the configuration of his face. In each portrait there was a clear story of his past and the feeling of displacement he had growing inside of him, the image titled self portrait 1971 is a classic example of how he would portray his hidden tortures. Using a strong form of impressionism with cubic shapes the painting had a nightmarish feel to it, as with most of his paintings and studies did, the use of light colours fading into a black background gives him a ghostly image showing the lack of confidence in his self. Although his painting skills where probably equally as good as Durer, Bacon does not express to show off in his self portrait by making himself more beautiful but the quite opposite is shown in how he tries to show a sense of remorse.
In conclusion, I have come to realise that the state of mind you are in as an artist is reflected within your art work, creating a self impression instead of reproducing the image in a photorealistic style.
This will be evident in my work.

Time line.
First month. Everyday document facial expressions using a camera.
Second month. Select one photograph from each day and arrange in a sketchbook.
Start to visually explore them using paint, charcoal ect.
Third month up until March. Start to paint the final designs onto large scale
Canvases (2meters by 1.5meters).
March. Exhibit in Shoreditch for one week, Peckham for one week and finally oxford
For a week. Funded by the arts council.

The Book. Student stereo

Student Stereo has been made. Its a celebration of fashion around LCA. I have concentrated on working as a freelance illustrator/bookmaker for this and have broken my fine art principles in making it.
the statement goes as follows,

My idea is to drive away from the traditional style of oil Painting and drawing that produce in my fine art pieces and start to work as an illustrator for a client.
I came up with the idea that LCA has asked me to produce an illustrated book celebrating the fashion of the students. The challenge is not to look at it in a surreal way, but to walk away from being meaningful and literally just illustrate the fashion we see down the corridors.
Doing the work.
Doing the illustrations was the easy part, but finding the subjects wasn’t so. I walked down the corridors on countless days asking students for there photo graphs but all I got was weird looks. It was a field exercise in which I didn’t have time to waste, I understand that in an industry you need to get the resources quick… so I had to ask people I no. I then went out into the streets of Leeds to take photos of passers buy; this was so I could understand other fashions and use it as a reference to choose the final student images. Using comparative ideas and optimism I selected the subject in which I was to draw from.
I printed a photo montage to stick on my wall behind my computer to use as a formal point of reference. When drawing the illustrations I went down to the basics of fine art, using the formal elements and abstract mapping to draw, the images are built up of layers, in a sequence very similar to the way I use oils and acrylics on canvas.
I banned myself from looking at any other artists work, this was so I had an empty mind and the work was my own imagination combined with the photographs. This is something I usually do, thus the work is mine and not just a reproduction of someone else’s styles.
The book layout was simple. Instead of using the grid system most graphic designers use I looked at what I no, the golden rule of composition (see reference). This was to create an order of chaos, the very same order Jackson Pollock illustrates in his drip paintings. This for me worked. I have to admit, typography isn’t a strong focal point in my work, I'm more focused on humans, and images speaking for themselves so the type’s used where selected because I felt (and dare I admit to saying this) they looked nice with my work. Not much constructiveness going on but I did have a play around with typefaces and created my student stereo logo which does have a strong impact, I kept it simple; the book is about the illustrations and idea. Albect Durer stated that ‘god is in the detail. Less is more’ which in most of my compositions is a rule I follow.
I did not want to spoil the aesthetics of the book buy creating a dust cover, to me the impact of the student stereo font followed by the illustrations is enough and a cover might over throw what is inside. People might not want to pick it up if the cover was second class. I also believe that the book being in black and plain almost invites you in, humans are interested into the unknown, and having no image or title on the outside makes it mysterious next to books with covers. Almost like that tin can in your cupboard with no label, you wonder what is in it; it takes over your dreams and then one day... you give in to the temptation and open it (warholian presence in consumerism and the idea of art being an advert).

Controversy

'Controversy'... i like to make most of my work controversial.

I mainly concentrate on the notion of the viewer becoming a participant as appose to just seeing my work. By making them emotionally involved into my work I can subjectively control them (only while they are exhibiting it) thus getting a controlled reaction towards it instead of an opinionated one... YOU VIEWER BECOME MY ART....

Femininity post 1

artist statement to come soon