Stuart Schooley

My recent work represents my life experiences put on to canvas.
They tend to be inward looking and are normally about my relationships with my family and friends.
I paint the scenes of the people I love, doing the things that evoke an emotional response in me.
It’s a bit like taking photos of you...

My recent work represents my life experiences put on to canvas.
They tend to be inward looking and are normally about my relationships with my family and friends.
I paint the scenes of the people I love, doing the things that evoke an emotional response in me.
It’s a bit like taking photos of your family and friends, capturing that special moment in time, but instead of using a camera, I use paint and abstract images to depict that moment.

When I represent myself in a painting, I will often be found with stripes on my legs. This is a nod to my home town of Brighton and the chorus girl legs that can be found on two of the local cinemas.
Also, I can sometimes be found with 6 toes or fingers. This is something my friend told my partner just before we met for the first time… something she believed.

I do my initial preparatory work on my tablet where I focus on form and colour to convey my concept. The images go through many incarnations before I am happy with them. When satisfied, I transfer them to canvas where I add paint texture and adjust, if necessary, to create my final work. The paint is normally applied thickly and the canvases can be large.
The images I paint, to me, convey emotion. These emotions are universally shared and the side of me that enjoys painting these images wants to share that emotion with anyone who cares to look.