Still life with garlic and mushrooms Painting

Taught by my mother the artist Blazenka Baikoff and artist friends. Early art work involved drawing numerous comic books from an early age (8 to 13) as I read a wide range of Belgian/ French comic books (Herge, Franquin). I invented characters, developed narratives and used ball-point pen on paper as my medium. Was more formally trained in the 1970's by my mother, the academic artist Blazenka Baikoff, working on traditional academic compositional and tonal aspects of charcoal drawings and poster paintings, concentrating on self-portraits and studies based on the still-lives of Cezanne. Blazenka inspired me greatly at that time. She had studied at Zagreb and Rome Academies of Art, and worked for her father George Reputine, a society photographer in Zagreb between the two world wars. Her strengths lie in portraits, tonal painting and conceptual sculptures called Androgynes (based on Louis XV furniture transformed and abstracted into large flattened wood and plexiglass forms) which she exhibited in Lausanne, Switzerland, in the 1970's. Thereafter, I spent eight years in South Africa, soaking in the climate, bright colours and beautiful landscapes. Since my return to the UK, my work has become more contemplative and I have concentrated on describing intimate still lives and interiors, especially if they have cats! My palette, enlivened by my South Afican experiences, is warm and bright and recalls a Fauve, Naive and Expressionist approach. Love Derain, Jawlensky and Matisse. I use acrylics on canvas and exhibit regularly with friends. As well as painting, I worked at Christie's Auction House in London for 12 years and in that time handled thousands of paintings and works of art, which went towards developing a deeper and more extensive appreciation of Art. In 2005 I obtained an MA in History of Art from London University, writing my dissertation on Giorgione’s Tempesta.