Fram Hayes Galleria Painting

Born 1970 Lives and works in London. My work has mainly been about the landscape, focusing primarily upon the urban environment. I was initially drawn to the gasometers and tower blocks that populated the area I grew up in around southwest London, The paintings has evolved from a pictorial landscape tradition, working directly from observation and referencing the work of the Euston Road School, the photographs of Bernd and Hilla Becher, and the paintings of Edward Hopper. My recent paintings use a number of themes as a starting point Recording the city from high and oblique vantage points and making work that hovers between abstraction and figuration. Using photographs taken in low light reconciles my desire to make work using a personal colour palette but creating paintings with believable space and forms that the viewer can project their own personal experience into.Returning to drawing directly from observation has helped me acquire a more conceptual aspect to the work. I seek out the beauty in banality and the absurd juxtapositions of the city. I am trying to fashion together disparate pictorial influences into a coherent painted surface. Ultimately I want to express the excitement and dynamism of the city while encouraging the viewer to consider the urban environment differently. I hope to lead them to reassess their daily surroundings with a different eye.