Artist's Statement
I also have a particular love for the fantastic. I am heavily influenced by the films I enjoyed as a child, such as The Dark Crystal, Legend and Labyrinth, their dark, surreal yet hopeful imagery created a lasting impression that still resonates in my more personal works. Many of the books I read, such as Songs of Earth and Power, Arthurian legends and the culturally rich pre-Christian history of Great Britain inspired a life-long interest in myth and magic, both traditional and contemporary.
A lot of my work either centres around the mundane-become-fantasy, features fantastical elements, or is outright fantasy illustration. Fantasy, to me, is about imagining ourselves as better. Fantasy takes on the trials, horrors, triumphs and wonder of our mundane reality, explores what they can mean for us, how we can better ourselves, or how things could go wrong, using allegories, metaphors and symbolism and I like to use this same exploration in my own work.
I work in mixed media. I enjoy working in chiaroscuro, acrylics (a fairly new media I am currently exploring), collage, hand made papers and found objects. On occasion, I even incorporate sewing directly into my work. In addition, I work with digital art programs like SAI Painter and Corel Painter to create digital paintings and drawings.
Visually, I am heavily influenced by such artists as Steve Skroce, whose use of solid blacks in his narrative and sequential work has affected my own use of shadows and light, and David Mack and Klimt, both of whose use of patterns and mixed media within their work inspired my own experimentations with the same. Alongside their, and other artists, influences are countless hobbyist artists I know personally or simply through their art in the online community, where we collaborate and challenge one another to greater heights.
I have been working to expand my skills recently, including taking instruction in Plein Air, learning to sketch and paint the landscape and cityscape around me. Moving away from the human form was something I previously found daunting, but I have now discovered a deep desire to continue with it and to incorporate it into my previous skill sets.
Even more recently, I have started exploring non-representational Abstract art and photography. I have a love of colour and texture, and have begun enjoying myself exploring these loves in my more recent work.
My love and enthusiasm for visual art started early; I grew up with a visually creative family who all helped nurture my love and enthusiasm, allowing it to grow and flourish. This resulted in many things being adorned with my doodles and paintings - including, at the age of eleven, murals on my bedroom ceiling and the back of my bedroom door. I won a school art contest at the age of ten and simply never looked back, studying art at every opportunity, everything from formal education, to weekend classes and tips or skills passed on from fellow artists I met or worked with.
I work primarily in the human form. I love to depict the human body in all its configurations and colours. Real people, alive and in front of me, or characters in books, I like to watch them springing into life under my pen. As a result I regularly take part in Life Drawing sessions, and when I can’t do that I take a sketchbook to well populated areas to sketch the people around me, studying features, bodies, and movement.