"I’m a perfectionist - I think it’s something to do with being a Virgo - once I start I won't stop until the piece is completed"
I’m always changing and developing my skills and styles but this is one of my favourites right now and is a good reflection of where I am at the moment. It’s one of a landscape series I’m creating in and around Nottingham city centre. I live in The Meadows and pass this view every day, I think it’s a place that a lot of people will recognise and can relate to.
I work as a kitchen hand and get inspiration from everywhere, I’ll see a view and think, “yeah that'll look great on canvas.” Most of my art is made with stencils and spray paint: I like the solid effect of spray paint; the variety of patterns I can create, like 3D bushes and cloud patterns; and the wide range of colours. When I've finished the initial stencil spray, I use paint or marker pens to add further detail to finish a piece. I live in a one bedroom flat that has a small storage room where I make all of my work, it’s just big enough for all my materials and to be my home studio.
I've been artistic all my life, but it was when I was about fourteen I grew interested in graffiti because my cousin was doing it. I’d graffiti any spare paper, school books and exam papers. When I was about twenty, after I’d completed art and design courses, I developed into graphic design and stencil art on canvasses. I moved to Nottingham nine years ago and started getting commissions from friends, businesses and shops. Recently I've started doing exhibitions, which gives me more creative freedom.
The best reaction I've had was to a piece I did of the Canary Wharf skyline behind a tube train. I love London and the tube reminds me of going to central London as a child with my mum. A lady bought it for her son because it reminded him of the tube and being back in London. It really made me feel like I had captured everything I wanted to. If I had unlimited time and resources I would make a massive canvas about sixty by forty foot of the London skyline with The Shard, The Gherkin and all the other buildings in Canary Wharf with trains buses and aeroplanes weaving between them.
I’m a perfectionist - I think it’s something to do with being a Virgo - once I start I won't stop until the piece is completed. This normally takes a whole day and sometimes I won't finish until midnight. I just don’t get the sense of pride and accomplishment in a piece until it’s finished.
See Tom’s work in an exhibition at the Crocus Gallery in Lenton starting on Saturday 19 October.
Tom Stoker's website
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