Ogun Drawing

I believe that ‘in a world most mundane, is a world most divine’ - unravelling the ‘ordinary’ and the ‘everyday’ and finding the deeper symbolism, connections and truths is central to how I see the world and what I do through my art. As a printmaker and painter, I have a passion for using a diversity of media - and love to work in a mixture of oil, acrylic, dyes and combine print on the same surface. I have been influenced by many great artists, from William Blake, Edvard Munch and Francisco Goya to Michael Borrëmans and Hendrik Kersten. Surrealism and The Pre-Raphaelites are just two art movements that have inspired me. I was born in Cambridge and grew up in Canterbury. After my art education I left London to live and work as an artist in Nigeria. During these seven years in Africa, I explored themes of spirituality, cultural meaning and symbolic animalism in my art. Much of my art depicted the deeper layers of meaning in everyday life in a nation embroiled in social, cultural, political and economic change. I created Iwana Arts, an umbrella Arts Company based in Lagos. The company was formed to promote greater cross-cultural awareness through theatre and Fine Arts. I was fortunate to receive numerous commissions from individuals and businesses, including the British Council, The Ford Foundation, The Netherlands High Commission and British Airways. ​I returned to England in 1997 and worked as a lecturer in the art departments of Middlesex University and the University of East London. I also worked in schools across East London as part of an initiative to bring art to life (and life to art) for children in the area. This work often involved the creation of art in public places and represented an open celebration of the power and inclusiveness of artistic intervention. The culmination of this was the funding by the Olympic Committee of public artworks to celebrate the winning of the 2012 Olympics and to set a tone of inclusiveness that the Games were to embrace. ​Motherhood has meant that my art had to be put on hold, although I did manage to combine looking after twins on my own, while gaining a PGCE qualification that enabled me to teach art in school. With my children raised, I have returned to my art with a passion and have reignited some of the themes that have captured my imagination over the years. ​