Gustav Herold's Atlas Painting

After crashing out of Art higher education at 19 in a blaze of burnout and disappointing experiences, I put down the paintbrush for a while and settled into life as an introverted creative in a seaside town in the English West Country. The rather abrupt end to my potential fine art career before it had even really started was difficult. For the following years I moved in a different direction - making a living from sewing whilst exploring music and other creative outlets. Eventually, almost a decade on during the 2020 pandemic I picked up a paintbrush again and re-acquainted myself with art. It was like meeting up with an old friend. We hadn’t parted on the best of terms and I had a lot to catch up on. It was – and is - a delight. I bought some new paints – one of which was claimed to be the world’s blackest black acrylic paint. I nicknamed it “void paint” and became a staple of this new era of artwork - The name ‘V.O.I.D’ became a natural extension of that. I sold my first painting in the summer of 2021, and I had a piece displayed in an exhibition at a local gallery later the same year. A new chapter had well and truly started and I’m excited to see where it leads.