Tone stencil art photography

Stencil Based Artwork

Artist Statement:
"I have a passion for music that comes from being a musician and songwriter and this has become a driver for my artistic practice. I take pictures of musicians playing at live venues across London. My focus is portraiture and I produce stencil-based images from the photographs that I have taken. These stencil-based works allow me to make use of spray paint but also to use techniques associated with printmaking to generate the imagery. I am able to produce multiple editions of each image with variations in colour and texture, but each work is a unique artwork in its own right.

I see a metaphor between the improvisation and framework within Jazz music and my own artistic practice. I am able to work freely with colours and textures with the knowledge that the stencils provide a structure that will make the image recognisable. This also allows me to explore mood and atmosphere in the settings that are the physical space in which the artists are represented. The painter in me is excited about the unpredictable and accidental results that can occur through more unconventional and free approaches to mark-making and the application of paint.

I enjoy seeking out street art and my quests have taken me from Shoreditch to Montreal, from Barcelona to Nice. However I also acknowledge that there is a long history and tradition of stencil making from China and within Eastern cultures. I have a lot to learn about the process of making imagery that goes beyond the verisimilitude that gives such impact to stencil-based street art that is so visible in public spaces today."