I believe the secret to taking great photographs is opportunity.
The braver and more courageous you are, the greater the rewards will surely be. I am heavily inspired by my travels and adventures around the world but also discovering things a lot closer to home. I love the diversity that each photograph can bring and I embrace the excitement that a new challenge can present.
Laura is a local artist and has lived in Chiswick for most of her life.
She was originally a theatre designer, creating sets and costumes for Alan Ayckbourn premieres, pantomimes, touring shows and film. She has worked as an interior designer since 2008, building up an award winning interior design practice specialising in bespoke kitchens, Laura Gompertz Interiors.
Every year she has an open studio weekend in West London with Artists At Home and she shows regularly with the artists' collective ArtCan as well as elsewhere.
Laura's paintings are in private collections worldwide
Bio: Sarah has worked in the creative industries for 14+ years as a freelance graphic designer, and has now expanded into the area of arts facilitation.
Sarah’s involvement with collective arts creation was stirred most recently while creating a mural at local mental health charity MindFood, and she went on to be a co-founder of Welcome Create, a community art group at Pitzhanger Manor & Gallery.
She enjoys working with all ages, and values listening to the needs and desires of those involved to co-produce ideas, creating a sense of learning via exploration and peer-to-peer interactions, connection and increased self-confidence.
I am a textile and mixed media artist working with found objects. My mission is to re-use and recycle discarded materials in a transformative way. Recognising that an alternative view can also be beautiful.
I run creative workshops at my local library.
I am a multidisciplinary artivist whose ideas circulate around protest, apocalyptic possibilities, climate change and utopia. I often take an anarchic view to traditional spaces for art and prefer using public interventions and community collaborations to spark energy for change. I grew up in Brentford and I have a degree in Fine Art and Art History from Manchester School of Art and The University of Barcelona. I am currently based in London and I have always lived in cities; the grit and absurdity of which are often captured in my works. My practice sits on a line between humour and horror, humour being a useful tool with which to approach hyperobjects such as the climate crisis and neoliberal global capitalism. I regularly use recycled materials and objects collected from the streets to make work as an act of non-monetary exchange, community cleaning and through which I enjoy subverting the elitism which surrounds the art world.
In every work I create, I put all I have inside. Every piece tells a story, and it is the result of a very specific feeling. All of them are unique pieces created in a time of internal burning. I find no sense in creating a piece without having a strong sickening need to do so. My pieces are made of fire.
Lily Mixe is a graphic artist originating from Paris who has now based herself within the creative hot bed of London, UK.
Lily?s artwork moves from paper and canvas, found objects and onto the surface of walls in the street.
At the centre of the work is Nature and in particular the Ocean. The subjects are otherworldly, aliens from our own planet. Specimens that offer reminders of how beautiful and complex life on Earth can be and how much of our own planet is unknown and undiscovered.
Inspired by numerous diving expeditions, and hundreds of notebooks and studies of animals and plants, the work is both familiar and unusual. Lily states, ?The work examines life under the surface, the incredible unseen, silent beings we take for granted. I want to give a visual voice to the natural world. I want to celebrate nature in the same way we value precious stones and rare artefacts, I place nature as the highest currency on planet earth?
Lily?s work mutates. It starts as a sketch, it builds and becomes a form, filling and layering textures and patterns that give it a life of its own. The art lives in books, on paper, found objects and ultimately become fully realised when added to the landscape; pasted to bricks and cement, continuing to change over time, changing with the weather, with plants, pollution, graffiti.
The work really starts to take shape once lily walks away. Making the art is only half of the process, placement of the piece is key to its completion, the transient and brutal spirit of nature frames the work, pasting drawings to a wall is an offering, and a sacrifice, an experiment, to see the drawings grow, change, and often be destroyed by the environment and time.
Recently named one of the UK?s most influential conservationists by BBC Wildlife Magazine, ATM has been at work on the lane reminding us of the population decline of some of Britain?s most important pollinators ? moths and beetles.
Originally from France, Zabou moved to and started painting London in 2012. She has since then been on a self-appointed mission to paint as much of the capital as possible. With a seemingly endless supply of fresh designs to work with, Zabou is very much one of London?s most proactive artists.
Her works are striking, humourous and thought-provoking, set to elicit a range of emotions upon viewing, depending on the message each mural conveys. Working with a combination of stencil and freehand techniques, she likes to question society and to poke fun at conformists. First and foremost however is the fact that each of Zabou?s subjects are drawn from her personal experiences, taking what she sees around her and projecting it to a new audience.
Beyond this, and what is fundamental about Zabou?s work, is her innate ability to integrate the location and surroundings with her artworks: not just wishing to paint on the street, she makes them part of the street. The pieces harmonise with their surroundings and in turn create something which allows its audience to engage with the work as an installation. This is the very essence of street art and something few artists master, but certainly one of Zabou?s greatest talents.
Her witty and thoughtful designs have given her a much sought after reputation, leading her to travel the world to spread her artistic message of love, fun or rebellion. She has painted in England, France, Portugal, Cyprus, Sweden, Spain, Germany, Netherlands, Dubai and the U.S.A. Beyond her travels, Zabou?s accomplishments include speaking events such as the prestigious TedX conferences on the subject ?Everything you know is wrong? in Limassol, Cyprus (2014), seeing her artwork published in books including: Planet Banksy by Ket (2014) and The World?s 50 Best Women Street Artists by Graffito Books (2017), as well as having her work exhibited at the famous Saatchi Gallery in London as part of the ?XX: A Moment In Time? show curated by Olly Walker (2016).
Zabou is an artist whose techniques and boldness are constantly evolving. She is certainly not set to be stopping on her journey anytime soon, fortunately she has to much left to say to the world.