alesha cooper

Biography

After leaving art school I was at a loss and after a few years I broke up with painting; it was a bad breakup with brush not seeing canvas for quite some time. I tried, many times over, to rekindle the relationship but it just never worked out. This has been the constant battle for many years but for now, the love part of the relationship is beginning to overtake the hate bit...finally! I was always a little embarrassed to say I'm an artist as I have never rated my work but I have since realised, some of it wasn't my work. Some of it was work for others. Some of it was work I THOUGHT others wanted. Very few of my pieces were done for me; mostly they were done for tutors, commissioners and, dare i say it, conformity! Now i paint for me. I paint because i love it. i paint because it has meaning. I paint because I can. After studying female form at art school I now rarely paint figures or portraits. Mostly I paint landscapes, architecture and some conceptual pieces. I am primarily an oil painter but I use mixed media and collage in most, if not all, my pieces. Texture is always at the forefront of my mind and, sometimes achieving those textures can mean using around 6 different mediums; it can be a long slow process. Thanks for looking at my gallery. Ars Longa Vita Brevis