Viva La Vandal

Born and raised in the North East of England, Ged was immersed in art from a very early age. Although not a professional artist his father found success through his commissions to produce many portrait pieces and so the house was a constant studio. “Every night at home was like an art class. My father was constantly teaching me how to not only draw but how to capture mood, depth, tone, emotion etc.

Although I can look back with huge appreciation for what he taught me, at the time, I was more interested in drawing cars etc” recalls Ged. When his father passed away at an early stage in his life, he began to loose interest in drawing and education as a whole. And despite a promising future ahead of him, Ged finished school with only a grade C in GCSE Art and then went on to get thrown out of his studies when he went into further education. During the early years after the death of his father, Ged endured countless and re-occurring nightmares, which was, unknowingly, to have a profound effect on his future career.

It wouldn’t be until 10 years later and over 4 months off work after breaking his leg that Ged would pick up a pencil or paintbrush to paint again. “It was a mixture of shear boredom and the need to brighten up the walls of my new home that got me painting again. This time though I found that my style had changed from still life to more abstract representations. Over the next 4 years I gradually built up a body of work and began exhibiting it locally. This led to many sales and commissions, which gave me the confidence to produce more work for more exhibitions but I was slowly getting frustrated and wanted to step away from my relatively new style and approach to work.” says Ged.

It was while he was trying to discover and get comfortable with a new style that Ged realised he didn't want to be put into a box in regards to his work. He didn't want to be controlled and restricted by such boundaries but did find that he had subconsciously engrained his work with an underlying substance: his childhood. As a young child, the most innocent of images thoughts or experiences transformed into horrendously scary and unbelievably real nightmares, and it's this that inspires Ged, yet at the same time he tries to keep a certain calmness and gentle energy to his work, almost a negative reflection of the pain, angst, turmoil and fear that the piece

Ged is no longer confined to the pristine white walls of galleries as he now also uses the streets as a backdrop to his work thus making his once personal experiences even more open to the public and uncontrollable glare.