What was your journey to get to where you are now?
I left school 16 and went straight to Kingston University. I loved painting and couldn’t learn anything at school because I was obsessed with paint. I got heavily into texture and the materiality of what paint can do – the way it can shrink and grow and how it can live with you through both the good and bad times. My style began to develop at Leeds College of Art. Whenever I went to art galleries it was the small details in paint that I loved rather than the whole painting, the cracks and microscopic details turned me on.
Paint can shrink and grow and it can live with you through both the good and bad times
I started painting abstract landscapes using varnish, molding paint and messing about with acrylic to create interesting textures. Through relentless trial and error, I eventually got to this stage where I was understanding how to really use paint to create the textures I wanted.
13 Inches Down
After my degree, I actually didn’t know whether to pursue painting as a job. For my degree show I had hung up my art and painted all the walls pink and then fucked off to a festival because I thought: “I’m not going to sell this, how the fuck am I going to make any money off my art?”
Whenever I went to art galleries it was the small details in paint that I loved rather than the whole painting
I’d turned my phone off but five days later, when I turned my phone on, I had 190 missed calls – it was crazy. Suddenly Aeon wanted to buy two of my paintings, the next minute they put them up in Leadenhall building in London, rented them for a year and then auctioned them off at Christies. As soon as that happened, I thought: “I can do this, I’m never going to get a job again”. There was loads of interest from galleries around London. It was moving at lightning speed.
The Walk to Atlantis
I’d been on such a high from all this before I returned to London and finally came out as gay. It took a while to really work myself out, I was battling depression and trying to work out where I was in life. It was a depressing time for me and I started to associate London with a grey, dull feeling. As time went by, I started to properly come out and talk to people more. I turned that darkness into light and started painting again but with more emotion embedded into my paintings.
I’d been on such a high from all this before I returned to London and finally came out as gay
Tell us more about your new Cathartic Greys collection.
These paintings are essentially an album of what I’ve been through. It’s my first series of reflective paintings, a big steppingstone for me. One of the works, Sketchbook Greys, is all about the idea of getting ‘obese on the ordinary’ in London which I translate to people’s growing addiction to ordinary, boring things such as the smartphone and fast food. It is about people’s bizarre choice to rot away whilst living in the city.
Balearic London
A lot of my paintings in this series are about adolescence in London, growing up in the grey city that is constantly changing. In most of these paintings there is a clear contrast between the greys and the sudden yellow golds that represent hope and ecstatic moments.
Some parts of my paintings really reflect that darkness that is in London sometimes, the endless people who are chasing nothing with bags under their eyes cramped by the city. Moving to this studio in London fields has allowed me to be positive as I have inspiring artists all around me now, your geography in London is so key to who you are and how you feel.
Part of Bertie’s new series
Part of Bertie’s new series
I’ve noticed your unique approach to these paintings, do you have a standard process?
These paintings can take a minimum of a month to make, sometimes I stare at the canvas for hours until I know what I want. This is my addiction, some people will take the same amount of time just to decide a caption on Instagram, it’s a weird world we are living in. As I grow these paintings grow, each layer takes two days to dry and some of the paintings have a ridiculous number of layers. The things that are happening to me at that time really shape the art and the emotion from that follows. It pours in.
This is my addiction, some people will take the same amount of time just to decide a caption on Instagram
I’ve started using graphite and iron in some of the paintings. They give the underlying darkness a slight shimmer in the light. It’s a new process I’ve been trying but the effect is beautiful and can only be seen in person. Because I’ve been experimenting with greys recently, I’ve created these by mixing multiple colours together so it isn’t just blacks and whites. I wanted to almost create a colour palette for London.
Part of Bertie’s new series
Part of Bertie’s new series
Do you have any key inspirations behind your style?
Some of my biggest inspirations are Alexis Harding, Howard Hodgkin and Neal Rock. Their approach to painting is a combination of sculpture and painting. The way some art is defined as just a painting or a sculpture has always confused me. Artists like Neil Rock allow their works to grow out of the wall. This is something that’s inspired me. I like to use the whole canvas rather than just one face. For me, if you can wrap a moment or a metaphor in paint around a 10cm deep frame it makes it more than just a painting.
Artists like Neil Rock allow their works to grow out of the wall
The paint lives. It lives with me. It’s not just me who has made the art but the paint itself. I love seeing what it can do every time I start a new piece. I have an obsession with acrylic paint but I can see other artists who have gone through that which is comforting.
How do you put on shows in London?
I didn’t want to follow the fairy tale story that a lot of upcoming artists chase where they want to become this big famous artist and end up in a gallery that takes 50% commission. I try and produce and present my art as organically as possible, make my own frames, use a wood workshop and stretch the canvas myself. I create shows where people are comfortable, so I like a busy space as opposed to a clinical environment.
I recently put on a show in Old Street Station. Instead of sitting around waiting for people to talk to me I created art there and then, so people can really see the artist behind the art. There shouldn’t be such a border between the artist and the public. It was a living, breathing gallery. It’s not about the price tag on these paintings at all – having some of these paintings leave me is difficult as they are so personal. It’s going to be hard to say goodbye to the Cathartic Greys. My upcoming show, Golden Hour, will be at my studio in London Fields and focuses on the beautiful evening light that comes into my studio.
