Sir Ian McKellen as Gandalf Print

Just like everybody, I doodled people from a very young age - and just like everybody my drawings never quite matched up with what I saw in my mind's eye. This led me to want to perfect the practice, building upon the foundations by taking up life drawing and, quite importantly, learning to draw the human figure from imagination as well as replication. Aside from the more technical aspects, I have been (and continue to be) fascinated by how people choose to express themselves. Each and every individual harbours a completely separate story borne from personality and experience intertwined with choices and chance occurances. These stories are private and internal but I want to capture the small (and sometimes larger than life!) ways others communicate their personal freedoms. In a world struggling to author so many personal tales, our yearning to be free practically bursts at the seams. To be able to imbue a piece with your own feelings and past experiences is a very special thing and one of the greatest strengths of artwork that I can think of. My first thought is to entice the viewer with the mysteries of what’s presented - that sense of wanting to know more about the internal voices of the subject. I have been shortlisted for exhibition at the Royal West of England Academy (RWA).