My Studio
View behind the scenes Time-lapse creations and other footage and photos of my working environment and process. I will also talk a little about my process and how I work. Enjoy My Studio page.
A bit about me.
I am a Bristol based Visual artist and author with a surreal Expressionistic style.
Ever since I was a young boy, I have had a wild and slightly strange imagination, which I've expression in various ways over the years, using many creative outlets. I love everything about the creative process from the initial ideas, right through to the finished piece, be that a painting or a story. Part of me even enjoys the downs along the way, when things don't always go to plan.
I love the mystery and confusion around ones imagination and how an idea can often be half formed, or even make little sense at all. These are the aspects I love the most. It's almost like trying to tell someone about the amazing dream you had, and never quite being able to capture that magic. Yet that's what I try to do. But that magic is in the mystery, not the clarity.
I spend most of my time sitting, or standing in my study, with my mind fully entranced in whatever I have decided to put my time into.
I love to hear what people think of my work, be that a positive or negative. I find a thrill at my audiences own interpretation.
Time-lapse Creations... Behind the scenes working
I've always been a very prolific artist and to be honest, spend a large portion of my time shut away in my study. This does however come with a few challenges.
Firstly, it is hard to then find a balance between what is a healthy amount of time in my study and what is too much. I truly believe I could spend pretty much all my time painting. Secondly... Space. The work I do is often large and as you have seen, mostly 3d. The challenge with this is storing it, especially if I have used oils, which take so much longer to dry.
Images below show the evolution of how I’ve stored my work. I've continuously had to build new racks to store my work, the first one being a fairly simple rack, until I am where I am today with nearly two walls of my studio filled with storing racks for my work. The first one didn't last long, within months I’d filled it up.
My next plan is to build a studio. I’m currently in the planning stage of converting my garage into a brand-new studio, where I can make as much mess as I want and have ample storage space. Hopefully that will then last me a year at least.
As with most things, to create something you are happy with, takes time. Every artist has a different method, but it is something that can’t be rushed. I have quite a chaotic approach to my art. I sometimes have a simple plan scribbled down, which changes greatly as I work, but often I just make it up as I go… A completely different approach to how I deal with life. While I’m in my study, I step away from that anxious calculated person and become free.
Images 1-2 below show the workings of two large pieces from different collections. One is from White Box and the other from Ticking Pocket I've stood them side by side in image 3 so you can see them next to one another.
Images 4-7 show the workings of Fed To Eternity. The first piece from the Perpetual Funnel Collection, which was not an easy piece to put together. I hit many blocks along the way. Having to try and glue plastic piping to a 3d metal face was a challenging task. I had to wait days in between each tamper, just to let the things I had created dry. In the end, I fitted the plastic tubing to the face with wire and glue.
I don’t follow a set pattern when I work, as it depends on how I want the finished piece to look. Sometimes I will start with wire and plan to have paint covering it, but other times I want that wire to be untarnished. Usually if the piece does not begin with wire, I will paint the background a bulk colour which goes with the theme of what I will be producing. So, if I know that I mainly want black to be my central tone, I will paint it black, then I will add to that.
I have no idea of the materials I will use when I start a piece, that just comes to me as I go. But I do keep quite an array of strange and peculiar things in my room. I have jars filled with old orange peels and broken glass. I have old bandages and pots of bizarre liquid mixtures, of which most, I’m not even sure what they are any more.
Below, images 1-3 show the early stages of Nothing Left, a piece from the In The Eyes Collection. As you can see, I began with wire, which was then hidden below the painted background. Then I added the other components.
Image 4 shows the initial wiring for the individual piece; Out. Image 5 is a clay tap from; What Will Come, Has Been. This is from the Ticking Pocket Collection. The tap was then glued to the background. Image 6 is the wire body of the character from The Nothingness, a piece from the Future Fear Collection. I created the wire body for this piece away from the painting and then attached it afterwards.