Going to California Painting

BIO I am an artist born on the Wirral and based in Liverpool UK. I studied Art History before eventually starting painting around 2006. I participated on the Turps Banana Correspondence Course 2014-2017, where my mentors were Jennifer Coates (New York based Painter and Art Critic), Covadonga Valdes (Painter) and Phil King (Painter, writer and co-editor of Turps Banana Magazine). This supportive, intensive period developed and reinvigorate my practice. The period during and since has witnessed my paintings becoming more sought after for exhibitions. ‘This Could Be Eastern Europe’ was selected for John Moores Painting Prize 2016. Five paintings were selected for Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2018 (‘The Mirage’, ‘The Clearing’, ‘Firewood//Setting Sun’, ‘Harvest Moon’ and ‘Starry Night//Campfire Light’). I won second prize in the Bankley Open in 2016 with ‘Time Of The Season’. Significantly in 2017 I was nominated for the Paul Hamlyn Award for Visual Arts. I have recently exhibited internationally, showing three paintings at Berlin’s Sluice Art Fair (November 2018) and three paintings were selected for Art – Letter Home, an exhibition touring four venues across China (2018-19). In 2018 I received A.C.E. A.I.D.F. Funding to spend four weeks in Texas carrying out research and raising my international profile. My work is held in various private collection in both Europe and USA. STATEMENT I am a painter based in Liverpool.I work in Paint, Sculpture and Neon. In 2018 I was awarded Arts Council England Funding through the Artists' International Development Fund to spend four weeks in Texas. I spent this time nurturing relationships with curators/gallerists/artists. I also visited Big Bend National Park and Marfa, researching and collecting source material for making work on my return. Since my visit to Texas, I have been making new paintings; including the Marfa Abstraction series, based on the research I carried out there. These paintings differ from works I made previously. I had been making some paintings that I consider to be 'American' Landscapes, which drew upon vague notions drawn from popular culture, folk music, folklore, American novels, films and so on, for inspiration or a starting or reference point. Instead, these new paintings have evolved from specific research, including location photography.