Textures of the past: 93 Three Colt Street, East London, 1902. Painting

Of the many things that define me, three things stand out: Firstly, my root identity and cultural heritage, courtesy of my birth in a Lebanon that is both beautiful on the shores of the Mediterranean and troubled in the winds of an unstable region; My open outlook on life and the firmly held values and tolerance from having spent my entire adult life in the West, mainly in the UK; And finally, art! Art which bridged all the gaps of my life, made sense of a confusing world, and provided the joy that you can only get from sharing what you adore with others. Art heals! A lifelong career in media as a senior executive for a global news organisation meant that I saw too much of what is wrong with the world. But I knew, of course, that there is also so much to celebrate, and so I needed a constant reminder of all that is good and beautiful. Art provided that, and it became a lifeline. In the end, the decision to quit the all consuming day job in favour of an all consuming life of art, was an easy one to make. My art reflects the passions I've held since my childhood. An old impressionist painting hung in my family's living room in Lebanon, still there to this day, left in me an unshakeable love of cityscapes from the turn of the 19th into the 20th century. That evolved into a fascination of the rebellious impressionist art from that era, particularly that which depicts a moment in a city's life, whether Paris, London or Beirut. I could never get enough of it. But I also adored the impressionists' stunning take on the light and colours of the countryside. In fact, everything the original band of rebel painters did, from that fateful counter-exhibition in 1874 onwards, continues to drive and inspire my today. Finally, there is the other love that accompanied me throughout my life: Motor racing. The thrill of human and machine, on the very edge of often mortal danger, and pushing everything to the limit, is unfailingly exhilarating. I try to express some of that sense of thrill in a few of my paintings. ​I hope you see something here that inspires you. Samir George Farah