Original artwork description:

The paintings is based on a number of sources, various drawings of figures, ink collages, drawings made on location in East London, and earlier paintings. The Bow area of East London is very familiar to me it has a rich history and the diverse communities living there today bring a rich mix of customs, beliefs and lifestyles that add to the depth and fascination to me as an artist. The way I make the painting is 'inside out', In the paintings each of the figures represents a function of the whole narrative, so for example there is a figure about dreaming, one about physical fortitude, one who is a child playing dangerously and so on.

The functions that the figures represent are not arrived at immediately; they rely upon the relationship of the figure to the surrounding space. During the process of creating a composition the figure and the background eventually have to ‘dance together’ for something more meaningful to emerge out of the separate parts. Creating a composition out of a diverse number of drawings often takes 4 to 6 hours, in general the painting process moves from initial observation or imaginative creation and moves through more mechanical stages - like copying scaling up. Once a definitive drawing has been painted onto the canvas using a grid, then the painting enters a technical stage whereby I try to achieve an interplay of colours and layers.

Materials used:

oil paint

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