‘PRACTISE’

THE STORY

I started working full time as an artist in early 2015. Since then I have kept every single pencil stub I have ever used to create all my artworks. There are 272 pencil stubs in total.

These pencil stubs were sitting in a jar on my desk waiting for me to create something out of them for nearly nine years. At the end of 2023 I decided it was time.

The artwork is named ‘Practise’ as it represents all the hard work, patience, and time I have dedicated to improving my skills over the years.

I have left the bottom row unfinished to symbolise this is an ongoing project and career.

In American English ‘Practice’ is the spelling of the noun and and verb. However in British English ‘Practice’ is the noun, and ‘ Practise’ is the verb. I purposely chose the verb ‘Practise’ to indicate an ongoing action.

VIRAL VIDEO

I made a video which tells the story behind the artwork. This Instagram reel has been watched by nearly 4 million people.

It’s really touching that people are having such an emotional response to this piece. This is what creating art is all about! Tapping into an idea and deeper meaning that others can relate to. The joy of social media is being able to share that idea and connect with people who resonate.

RA SUMMER EXHIBITION 2024

‘Practise’ was selected for The Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition in 2024.

Held every year since 1769, the RA Summer Exhibition is the world’s oldest open submission exhibition. It receives over 16,500 submissions each year. So it felt like a real achievement to have an artwork hanging on the wall of such a prestigious gallery.

I’ve visited the Summer Exhibition every year since I moved to London in 2013. It’s always a highlight of the summer for me and it was a wonderful to be a part of it this year.

CREATING A LIMITED EDITION PRINT

From this piece I created my first ever colour print. Breaking away from my usual monochrome artwork.

This is a unique artwork and a stand alone piece within my portfolio so it was very important to me to get the print looking exactly as I wanted it.

It’s been quite the journey to get to the finished print: Firstly, I got the original artwork professionally photographed, then I did multiple test prints to achieve the perfect balance of brightness and contrast, and finally had it printed on 6 different high quality papers in order to find the one best suited.

It’s took a couple of months of iterations to get there but I couldn’t be happier with the results. The pencil stubs were professionally photographed and the shadows capture the 3D nature of the artwork brilliantly.