Geraniums for Toulouse-Lautrec Painting

I graduated in 2008 from the University of Plymouth. My early art was primarily print making (mono print drawing) and live art / performance art. After graduation I exhibited and performed widely in England and then in South Korea where I lived for five years. My work was satirical, humorous, challenging, and centred on the concept of the postmodern self. It was autobiographical and sometimes incorporated alter egos. Eventually it was difficult to know where the line was that separated my life from my art. It became intrusive and destructive. In 2012 during a street performance in Hogdae for the Korea Experimental Art Festival (KEAF) I faked my death and was rushed off in an Ambulance. I then went through the arduous task of trying to kill my online presence. I returned to the UK and I became a teacher. I didn't make any art for five years. In 2019 I decided to start afresh, completely change my artistic practice, and become a painter. My paintings draw inspiration from Asian Ink Wash painting where the aim is to capture the essence of the subject rather than accurate physical depiction. It is an instinctual, expressive way of painting that wrestles between forceful haphazard gestures and play of chance, to delicate controlled brushwork. I am very much concerned in the texture of my paintings. I like to think of them as being colourfully dirty. It is also an introspective process. My aim is to become completely enamoured with the subject and lose myself within the act. Most recently, I have been paying homage to some of my favourite dead artists. Using reference images and devising colour signature pallets, I attempt to capture the essence of the artist’s life, death, and body of work in the fruit or flowers, like an anthropomorphic depiction that celebrates the life and achievements of the artist. My early work was very post-modern but I am more interested now in meta-modernism which is where I feel I am currently with my painting. In 2022 I became an exhibiting member of the Reading Guild of Artists