Original artwork description:

While regeneration is a necessity and a very present reality for people in the community, not everyone is able to engage with the process of change in the city environment in a positive way. People from the local area are sitting on a scaffolding watching the changes taking place around them.

My works are informed by many topographical cityscape drawings made on
location in East London; figure drawings made from observation and memory feed into the narrative process that is part of an unfolding personal visual chronicle, about the new emerging East London, both physical and social. I have also been painting outside in the open air on short breaks from London, these paintings are later finished in the studio with figures that come from the recent memories of seeing people enjoy the open spaces outside of the city.
For me the city is not measured by the size and efficiency of its buildings but by the quality of its community spaces where families can nurture their children to have a role and be successful in mainstream life.
I’m interested in portraying themes about how we can practically ensure a cleaner and sustainable future for both the city and its inhabitants.
For me painting deals with how I negotiate these preoccupations about community life into pictorial space, recent months have demonstrated that our health and a healthy life style is clearly connected to being together with people and with our relationships in the community.

Materials used:

oil paint

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