Drowning in Utopia Painting

Chris Paul Godber Born 9th March 1986 I am a 28 year old painter from the North West of England now based in London. I am inspired by a variety of different styles and movements in my work and also explore a variety of different ideas. I am inspired by a lot of modernist painting and often work with a modernist aesthetic, utilising abstraction and distortion in an attempt to heighten the impact of an image. Some particular painters who have inspired me include Picasso for his cubist work, Van Gogh for his confident handling of paint and intense portrayal of nature, Joan Miro for his biomorphic abstractions and a whole host of expressionists, surrealists and abstract painters. My work often explores an inner world of abstracted shapes and what I call an interior landscape which I think of as the landscape of the mind. I do not often work from subject matter and will most often start with an initial visualisation or idea in my mind which I will then expand on as I work. While some of my work is purely abstract and non-objective there are often subtle hints at representational imagery, like images glimpsed then forgotten as in a dream. Some reoccurring themes I have explored in my work include portraying nature, distorting the figure and expressing negative and positive emotion as well as exploring dream landscapes.