Fine Art Degree Show 2020

I am a contemporary artist whose work was mainly in oils and acrylic paint but now predominately working with charcoal on paper. I am currently studying for a BA in Fine Art at the Greater Brighton Metropolitan College in Durrington.

My current work is becoming more figurative. Up until a couple of years ago, figures would have been absent from my practice. As my work has developed, I have started to incorporate figures, although sometimes they have been faceless, something that I am now working on. I sometimes have difficulty in recognising people, and so I try to identify people by situations and location. Ideas around identity, or maybe lack of, has had an influence on some of my drawings. Recent influences have come from old films, especially the silent movie era when acting was overly dramatic. I get the sense of what is going on in dramatic films, photographs and TV being a little slow in recognising subtlety. Full-on dramatics I get although it can also be disconcerting.

During my degree course, I have experimented with different styles, methods and materials and found my most satisfactory medium for the work I am now producing is charcoal on paper. I have grown to love charcoal, maybe too much. When drawing I inevitably end up as covered in charcoal as the paper. I love the way I can draw and erase, smudging with my fingers or the back of my hand, and wiping with a piece of cloth or a piece of paper. This gives me a feeling of being in close contact with the subject made even more so by drawing life-size when I can.