I am Brighton based artist and a graduate in Fine Art from Nottingham Trent University. I have been exhibiting for eight years, including selling pieces displayed in Brighton Festival open house galleries, a show sponsored by Absolute Vodka and through my website.
My paintings are either self-portraits or based on close friends of mine. This is familiar ground, an old comfort blanket, reaching out to what I recognise. The other women are often people I’ve shared an important experience with. They are all shouting for attention.
The original images are selected from snapshots. I’ve always taken photographs that the subject often detests. These often disregarded photographs, that people hide in the back of a cupboard, or tear up because they can’t face seeing themselves in that manner, fascinate me and are used as a jump off point.
Taking shortcuts, I add missing information, subtract irrelevant areas and zoom in for examination, creating portraits that depict either moments in-between a pose that exposes vulnerability, or specific captured expressions that convey a poignant moment or experience. The private self, unguarded and awkward moments candidly expressed. Problems are confronted, anxiety, fragility or staged confidence are caught and put under surveillance. Colours are highly saturated and illuminated. This contrasts with faces that are consumed in harsh white light – pale and clammy, blemished and girning, horrifying and beautiful, raw, uncomfortable but always honest, open and direct.
Find out more about me on my MySpace, MyArtSpace and Saatchi Gallery pages.
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