Aphrodite's Body Drawing

“By portraying people and how they think, you can make sense of yourself and the people around you.” Jordan Eastwood is an emerging artist from Devon, in the UK. “It has always been difficult to leave my own head. Growing up, I was happy enough to spend days on my own in the countryside. As I got older, there was a growing sense of isolation and a need to make real connections with people. But, instead of being part of groups, often I was on the outside, looking at people in general with fascination. How everyone acted, what they thought and what they would choose to say or to hide. At school, art helped me feel slightly more normal and even excited to see how people would react to my work. As I got older still, and went on to university to study neuroscience, I struggled with mental health problems and a severe lack of satisfaction with how I would fit into society. After a few rough years, I began learning about philosophy in an attempt to understand people better, and it led me back to creative expression and art. I think a lot of the feelings of loneliness come through in my artwork. Some will focus intimately on a single subject, and others will present groups as something unfamiliar. Regardless, art has always been a way for me to feel as if I had a connection to, and an understanding of, people. I think that by portraying people and how they think, through art, you can help make sense of yourself and the people around you.” Although having studied art at school, Jordan is a primarily self taught artist. Eastwood works primarily with pastels and charcoal to create his designs which are united by their use of dramatic lighting and a deep atmosphere. Each piece begins with gestural marks which are then developed through a combination of blending and bold marks. The final product achieves a high level of realism that is contrasted with abstract details. Towards the start of 2020, Eastwood began to work with clay to create sculptures. As with his drawings, he strives to create pieces that are realistic, yet expressive, along with slightly exaggerating the anatomy of the subject.