GNT.gallery on Cornfield Road in Eastbourne was an excellent venue. It looked fantastic….. I have had an endless amount of positive feedback – the lighting/atmosphere sets off my images perfectly. The gold always has a strong impact but when a painting is hung in the right place, it comes alive.I always use gold leaf in my paintings. I love the sense of history/age it gives. A lot of layers are created over time and then I excavate to reveal the memories. I’ve been experimenting a lot with chinoiserie wallpaper especially old hand-painted styles, with layers of paint and wallpaper underneath and on top. Lots of memories and I feel the paintings in this show encapsulate that with the portraits eerily surfacing through the pattern, giving a real sense of past - a fading memory I’m always experimenting and trying to come up with new ways of portraying my obsession with fading memories.
These art works were an idea I had whilst looking at Lee Miler photo montages and the overlapping of images on a photograph in the dark room choosing the right combination takes you on a journey that would not be possible with just the face. I studied at Camberwell School of Art in London. Art is like a curse you have to do it! You are not necessarily rewarded when you do a fantastic piece of art. I have had many, many menial jobs over the years to subsidise my art, working on building sites and in factories, warehouses etc. my first break in an artistic/work sense way when I was working in a bingo hall, I was so disheartened, working for the minimum wage, Iiving in a squat, not having enough spare cash to buy fresh canvases, I phoned every scenery company in London, thinking that there was maybe a way of earning money for doing something artistic with paint. After spending a week phoning, following up leads, a firm called me back, desperately needing someone “NOW” to paint a back drop…… Hooray….. my first paid artwork was a hand painted 50” billboard of Anaconda in Leicester Square. It's amazing how one day I could be calling out bingo numbers for the prize of a bag of sugar, the next painting a bill board for a film. My job continued for a number of years working on film sets and television. No matter how elaborate, or prestigious the projects were the need to paint my own things was stronger than ever. I pinch myself every day, thinking how lucky I am to make a living out of selling my art. It has been a long hard struggle to get here and I appreciate every moment of it.
My time at art school and the subsequent years taught me incredible self-discipline. I think the most important thing I have learnt is that you get out what you put in. I paint best when I’m in a positive state of mind, I’ve sold a lots of paintings and I'm in the ‘zone’ in the studio, everything is easy, the magic is flowing, ideas come thick and fast and you’ve got the time and money to go with it. Winning the Saatchi Award in 2012 changed everything. Suddenly galleries that I had approached mere weeks before were giving me exhibitions, new galleries were getting in touch with me. I went on trips to New York, Dubai, India and Spain. The positive response was immense, I thrived from the attention. I wasn’t aware of Facebook and Instagram, Twitter etc. but my email box was constantly pinging with links and comments from well-wishers connecting me to social media. It was very difficult to find a balance between following up opportunities/ networking and getting back in the studio. I think that is why most artists are only good at one element - the artwork itself. It can be a full time job promoting yourself. It was great for me because I got involved with a number of galleries, they do all the promotion, I just paint.
