About
Artist Illustrator and consultant.
I’m a visual artist based in Carshalton working with a range of materials and surfaces – old and new. My work often reflects aspects of where I live and work, and how I’m feeling. My guardian figures relate to aspects of mental health, self-care, and speaking truth to power.
Music plays an important part in my work, and for my Vinyl Junkie project, I use unwanted vinyl LPs, and old sheet music as canvases for my hand cut stencils, some of which take several days to make.
I run the award winning ‘We Are All Artists’ community free art project, which encourages community engagement through workshops, pop up exhibitions, and a weekly free art drop where I hide a piece of art in my neighbourhood for people to find.
I illustrate and live paint at conferences, often working on larger canvases reflecting the themes and general mood of the events, in the moment. I run local art classes and I work with a variety of organisations, using arts based approaches to learning and development. A selection of my work is available to view on my website, and you can follow more of my artistic adventures on Facebook, and Instagram.
In 2020 I designed and installed the Creative Pavements street stencils project around a number of schools across our borough. I also worked with the Heritage team in the council to produce a series of how to videos in support of The Locals Diaries – an archiving project.
In 2021 I held my first solo exhibition titled ‘Finding My Way’ in the Sutton Central Library Gallery.
I supported the London Borough of Sutton when pitching for the London Borough of Culture Award, helping to secure a Cultural Impact Ward which enabled the Borough to run the hugely succesful Sutton Steams Ahead programme. I was also a Member of the Advisory Board for this project.
My work is exhibited in the UK and across Europe, and is bought by people in the UK, Europe, USA, Australia and New Zealand. Please contact me via social media for commission enquiries.
Website
http://www.dougshawart.com
