Who am I
I am a Melbourne based artist specialising in portraits, pen and fashion sketches
What & who inspires meMy influences are first and foremost everything I see, feel and experience, but I grew up watching my grandmother pouring through the Sears catalogues to sew the most beautiful apparels. The glamour and polish of the 60's fashion is what inspires me. I might be called a traditionalist. I loved the Tin Tin comics and the illustrations enthralled me. Rembrandt, Monet and Raja Ravi Varma's works present the epitome of artistry and I hope to one day produce one piece that will meet those standards.
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I am fascinated by people and the energy they exude from their eyes. I like capturing their faces and so portraits are my speciality. I am never without a pen in hand and so I am constantly surveying humanity and sketching. I don't set out to produce art about one subject or another. Sometimes the sketches are left behind on a napkin and sometimes in my sketchbook while other times they develop into more in-depth ideas and detailed images.
I am no social commentator but I do find life in inanimate objects that hold a certain analogy to life and our times. My sketch of the humble pencil sharpener was an idea I had while at University but only eventuated a decade later. The idea of the analogy it posed fascinated me and I had to put pen to paper. My work tends to focus on the young and the elderly. A child's innocence and curiosity is raw and is where life starts it's journey. While the elderly speak to us through their lines. Their wrinkles tell us stories of their lives - a life the child went through. They hold the keys to wisdom which we can learn from. My Tibetan lad and his grandmother's portraits were sketched directly with a simple ball point pen. Their windswept personality spoke of freedom which we city dwellers can only dream of. At school, the only class I really paid any attention in was mathematics. I simply wasn't interested in anything else and I think my obsession with depicting the fine lines and black and white in life started there. This is why my charcoal and pen sketches dominate my portfolio and most are in black and white. This is why my inspiration comes from fine art. I try to capture light through my paintings. The elusive glow that fine art masters of yesteryears managed to tame is my ultimate goalpost. None of it is intentional but developed and evolved over time as I experimented with paints and textures and colours. I am often asked for my artist statement. I have never done one since I've never liked to explain a certain piece of work. It can be what the viewer wants to think of it. To me I have made a picture and that's how I wanted it to be. Nothing more, nothing less. Hopefully it can speak for itself and whatever it says to the viewer - it's the right message because there isn't a wrong and a right message. Each person takes something a little different from the same picture and I'm happy with that. |
A peek into my creative nook
The human form fascinates me - specially the female form. This is why life drawings make up a large portion of my portfolio.
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