The main influence on my work is the Pop Surreal movement . With its often dark, surreal context or contrasting bright cartoon-like characters the movement provides a fresh and exciting take on sub cultures such as punk-music and comics. The one link between the varied styles in this movement is a strong use of imagination. This contact with my imagination mixed with the soothing process of painting works as a medicine from difficult periods in my life and indeed a way of expressing my feelings through happier times which has formed my love of painting.
Throughout my work I have progressed through experimentation with different styles influenced by Pop Surreal Artists before moving on to greater work with skin tones and uses of colour in portrait and figurative paintings which lead me outside of the Pop Surreal movement. I found this important to progress my work by looking at artists who have become established in their field of portrait or figurative fine art, while still keeping the core elements of the Pop movement in order to adapt my own personal style.
I feel the most successful painting I have done to date is “Oh my friend you haven’t changed, you’re looking rough and living strange.” As I have also been concentrating on skin tone I personally feel this is the most affective one so far with the bold interesting colours. This is something I am going to take with me in my future work and hope to establish a style using more extreme colours.
