Artist/Designer from London, I try to contain as many different attributes of creation within my process as possible. Whether it be Graphic Design, graffiti or illustration, I take elements of each of them that help formulate my painting methods. One method is created by layered paintings that build depth through the combinations of spray and oil paint with pen and ink detailing. I create the basic shapes of the piece with a stencil then work into that simplistic base. Then work into with acrylics, Indian inks, and pens to form an illustrative style but still regaining the painterly finish.
My first series in this style is entitled "Marvels of Daily life' taken from a quote by Photographer, Robert Doisneau. He had a beautiful viewpoint about how the normality of daily life creates remarkable beauty in itself, wanting to build on this idea of capturing the moments of life. I've created this series, to re imagine aspects of Doisneau's photography. Using a blended format of media around a single detailed focus point, the works ties into the fascination of a fleeting moment in the blur of life.
Another Method of painting is where it leans more to graphic design. I throw black gloss paint onto a clean fresh canvas and allow to dry naturally, creating thick barriers of paint that form relief of the surface. These areas are then filled in with either colour tones of oil paint or fabrics and images. My first series is entitled 'Palettes', and bases the colour tones on the broken down tones of master paintings, such as Turner's 'Fisherman at sea'.
A third method is the combination of this previous style and traditional oil painting techniques. Displaying how man simplifies nature - restructuring it into formulaic grids for our own ideas of life. Above the sky remains untouched perfection apart from explosions of black gloss that protrudes from the gridded landscape below, symbolising how humanity has broken down natural systems on the land that are now effecting the weather we exist in. The colour tones within that grid mirror the tones of the sky above.
I also spray big characters under the name Gweeze. The characters are based on my drawings over years, now they have hoods over their eyes, signifing how most people have been conditioned into having their eyes shut to most of happenings in the world. They also sometimes have massive heads leaning to the side illustrating how human heads have become so big, they're starting to fall over and cant be supported.
Designing skateboards has been a passion of mine for many years and is something I get the most satisfaction from. Something about working with a perfect bit of wood, and creating a design that fits the beautiful shapes of decks is so interesting, having only a section to work with. It really makes to think about the portrait or design. I've created numerous decks, and when we creating Fourtwen, they got to some people that I've respected and admired, ASAP Rocky, Tyler the creator and Congo Natty to name a few.
I'm now Creative Director of 420Australia or Bloom Clothing, creating clothing designs based around the beautiful botany of the cannabis plant. Hopefully pushing forward with the movement of legalisation worldwide.
