Needs, wants and desires; comfort Painting

I am interested in exploring painting’s technical traditions to realise contemporary subjects. History, particularly the renaissance has always drawn a fascination, and being a British Emigrant and English teacher I have a passion for Shakespeare’s plays. Having been a web designer the visual culture of digital networks is an influence on my work. I am inspired by stylistic themes of glitching, pixelation, and error and attempt to infuse these in painting. Thinking about how painting functioned in history, and how other media do that work now, my motivation is to explore notions of power, identity and entropy. Through layering and experimentation, acrylic paint is pushed to simulate oil and create texture on the surface of the canvas. I am very much aware that a painting is not just an image on a screen but an object that gains its power by existing in the viewer’s temporal space. For me this is the unique power of painting, that a viewer can stand before an object and have a physical relationship to a fragment of the playground of the artist. PERSONAL HISTORY I studied fine art at the University of Central Lancashire. When I graduated the internet was just taking off. I pursued work in the digital sector and became a web-designer for some years. I then relocated to Lisbon for personal and professional reasons.