"Swimming Upstream" Painting

Hello — I’m Joe Giles. Welcome to my world of art. I’m really glad you’re here.

Creativity has always pulled at me, even when I wasn’t allowed to touch it. Paintings in particular — colour, movement, emotion — fascinated me long before I ever picked up a brush.

I was born and raised in a high-control religious group where freedom of expression simply didn’t exist. Life was governed by rules, surveillance, and uniformity. Even the way I dressed was dictated: white or blue shirts, dark trousers, black shoes — no colour, no individuality. Music, television, theatre, holidays, art — all forbidden. It was an extremely colourless world.

At 28, I was excommunicated and suddenly thrown into the wider world. In those early years, I spent hours wandering through art galleries, standing in front of abstract and contemporary works in genuine awe. It felt like entire parts of my mind were waking up. Still, I never imagined I could create anything like what I was seeing. That felt like something other people did.

Then, in 2024, almost by accident, I bought a cheap set of acrylic paints from TK Maxx and started playing. No plan. No expectations. Somewhere along the way, I created something that surprised me — something that felt alive. Painting quietly became a weekend habit.

Everything changed in mid-2025.

After what I can only describe as a total identity collapse — losing someone I loved deeply, losing my job, my financial security, and the home I thought I’d built my future in — I bought a large canvas from The Works and began painting instinctively, almost violently. Over weeks, I poured grief, anger, shame, guilt, and pressure onto the canvas.

That piece became Emotion 1.

The therapeutic impact of that process was profound. For the first time, I wasn’t analysing or controlling how I felt — I was transferring it. When the painting was finished, I felt something I hadn’t expected: pride. And in that moment, my love for painting was born.

Today, I paint emotionally rather than intellectually. Each piece is a snapshot of how I feel in that moment — layered, imperfect, sometimes chaotic. Colour plays a central role in my work, very deliberately. After growing up in a grey, restrictive world, colour feels like freedom. Brightness feels like rebellion. Expression feels like survival.

My hope is that my work does something to you. I don’t need it to be liked. I want it to resonate — to provoke, disturb, comfort, or confront. If you love it, great.