London

Having finished at high school and sixth form in Norfolk, I moved to London to continue studying. As it happens, I didn't study art, but Modern and Classical Chinese. I lived in a small flat in King's Cross with 5 other first year students at my university, The School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS).

Even at this time I was aware of, and emphatically agreed with Francis Bacon's assertion that all art schools should be burnt and artists should just be given paint, canvas and brushes. I'd spoken to friends who'd gone to art schools and found that as painters, sculptors, etc. they'd be pushed, at the urging of their art school teachers away from traditional media into more experimental, conceptual ways of working. It was fashionable to make pieces that were confusing for the sake of it. I just wanted to paint.

I wasn't interested in any themes in particular, though certain ones seemed to force themselves forwards. I looked for interesting faces, where the colours changed dramatically or the features were twisted or obscured in a certain way. Skin was just a series of colours and tones and I wanted to play with expressing those through paint. Nothing more.