After several weeks of writing essay-like posts in which I devour and analyse new and old favourite artists, books, exhibitions etc., I decided to take a little break and write about my current project. I don’t usually share my work-in-progress, nor do I document it step-by-step. For one thing, I get completely immersed in any new artistic venture, so that…

Until very recently, I had been making a conscious effort to separate writing, one of my favourite and most natural ways of expressions, from other areas of my artistic practice. I somehow felt that it was interfering with visual art, my official career path, and that it didn’t have a place in it, besides the “hobby” drawer. But I have…

Some time ago, my partner Colin asked me why I hadn’t yet written a post about Francis Bacon. Not only is he my favourite painter, but I know quite a lot about him thanks to spending a year and half of my Masters degree studying his life and work, and devoting my MA project to him. I said to Colin that…

A few days ago I watched a film which affected me in a way only a handful of films did (recent ones include Lars von Trier’s Melancholia, Lukas Moodysson’s Lilja 4-ever or Jan Komasa’s Suicide Room). From Inside is an animated movie created by John Bergin (credited as writer, producer, director, and animator), based on his graphic novel about a young…

As the New Year approaches, like many people, I have an urge to go through old boxes of non-descript “stuff” and transfer their contents to rubbish/ recycling bags; tick off all the remaining tasks on my to-do list, sort out whatever there is to be sorted, and make plans for the next year. End-of-year clearing immediately makes me think of…

So first, your memory I’ll jog, And say: A CAT IS NOT A DOG. — T. S. Eliot As I’m currently preparing a new series of cat drawings for the Kittytees, and had the pleasure of meeting Alice, my good friends’ cat last Saturday, I thought that I could dedicate this post to cats. Cats and artists – what a cliché,…

I am currently preparing for a joint exhibition with Oxford-based painter Andris Wood at the Gasoline Rooms gallery in March 2014. The body of work I am preparing moves me away from previous painting ventures into a more experimental territory where fine arts meets the graphic novel. This is exciting and terrifying at the same time, and the experience of…

Last Sunday, I had the pleasure of visiting the National Gallery to see the Facing the Modern: The Portrait in Vienna 1900 exhibition. I was also very surprised to read devastating reviews of the exhibition on both the Guardian and the Evening Standard websites and a slightly more favourable, yet still very critical, review on the Telegraph website. All three reviewers…

When I was a Central Saint Martins student, my absolutely favourite part of any performance design project was creating a storyboard. I still vividly remember the very first project we had, where we had to create a visual concept for a theatrical piece in response to Johnny Cash’s song, The Man Comes Around. I remember sitting on my bed with…

I have recently finished working on an animated trailer for my Milla in the Misty Woods book, which, though only 1.22min long, turned out to be a vast amount of work. And that’s despite the fact that I’ve been working with a digital form of animation which means I didn’t have to hand-draw 12 drawings (as you do with traditional…

Painting sex in the East Yesterday I went to the Shunga: Sex and Pleasure in Japanese Art exhibition at the British Museum. Translated literally, the word shunga means spring pictures (apparently “spring” is a euphemism for sex) and refers to erotic colour prints, painted hand-scrolls and printed books made between 1600 and 1900 in Japan. Despite a few periods of…

I recently read that Rufus Norris has been confirmed as Sir Nicholas Hytner’s successor as director of the National Theatre. In an interview for the Guardian in October 2012 he said: I was 36 before I earned £10,000 in a year. People go, “Oh, you’ve got a lovely career, you must be rich,” but I still rent, and I don’t…