Alex Fawson Artworks.

Alex is an artist, living and working in Walsall in the West Midlands.  He has always enjoyed creating and producing art, however it wasn’t until his early twenties that he embarked on formal art education at Walsall College of Art and Technology.  Before this time he studied philosophy at the University of York, the influence of which can be seen throughout his subsequent works.

 

Now in his early thirties, Alex’s practice is primarily (but not exclusively) centred around portraiture, in oil/acrylic paint and graphite/charcoal.  Still concerned with philosophical aesthetic questions such as, “what is art?”, “what is good art?” and “what is the purpose of art?” he believes that art should elicit some reaction:

 

“I try, when producing a work, to examine what it is to be human and to exist in the present.  I find portraiture an excellent way of capturing a personality and a feeling that can be easily recognised by the viewer as being part of themselves too.”

 

After briefly studying Fine Art at Nottingham Trent University, Alex returned to Walsall to concentrate more on the techniques of painting in order to better portray his ideas onto canvas.  Artists such as Chuck Close and fellow Walsall artist Andrew Tift were big influences during this time:

 

“I don’t believe that photo-realism, for me at least, is an end in itself. However, by learning the techniques and rules for such work, I feel I will be better able to understand when to break such rules!”

 

Alex has exhibited his artwork in numerous exhibitions in both Gallery and public spaces.  Most notably at The Custard Factory in Birmingham and The New Art Gallery Walsall.  Currently he has pieces in the Gallerie du Grotesque, Walsall.  Alex’s practice is evolving and will keep on evolving, but the ideas of relating to the human experience and trying to portray such things within his work will continue always.