Scratching the Surface.
My degree studies included experimentation with drawing, painting, sculpture, printing and photography and I began to produce work from life studies and abstraction.
The use of digital media and image manipulation, became instrumental in the transformation of my photographs as a base to create abstract drawings and paintings.
The use of colour is essential to my work and I found that the use of digital editing provided me with a freedom to experiment. I took particular interest in Pop Art and the work of Andy Warhol, who’s style would begin to influence my work.
A selection of my early work at UCS shown below:
The Beginning.
Prior to my degree studies, I attended evening classes at Ipswich Art School in the 1990′s, where my practice focused on painting wildlife in Gouache.
I referred to work by Terence Bond and worked from photographs in a part photo-realist style, adding movement and narrative to create originality. I enjoy relating stories and even at these artistically naïve times it was important for me to add concept to the basic photographs.
For example, the Kestrels are much more than a pretty picture of birds in flight. Constructed from separate photographs from different books, to create the courting scene, the grey stormy sky and a fallen tree within a heathland setting, refers to the threatened destruction of the birds natural habitat, from house building.
My desire was to break away from the confines of photo-realism and become more expressive in my drawing and painting.
NOTE: CAPTIONS SHOW WHEN IMAGES CLICKED/OPENED INDIVIDUALLY.
