There’s nothing safe or cosy — and, indeed, there shouldn’t be anything safe or cosy —about being an artist.
There’s nothing safe or cosy — and, indeed, there shouldn’t be anything safe or cosy —about being an artist. Being an artist means living on the edge, going outside your comfort zone, being challenged.
Artists put that challenge into practice in all sorts of different ways; and for me it’s meant seeking out challenge — and adventure — in a very focused way. I call what I do ‘extreme art’: I’ve deliberately set myself a series of tasks that have taken me into challenging and even dangerous situations, so I can attempt to capture on canvas not just how a situation or place looks, but also how it really feels, from the inside.
My quest for extreme art has taken me to Afghanistan and Iraq with British troops; it’s taken me on treks into remote areas of the Himalayas; and most recently it took me inside one of Britain’s most secretive organisations, MI6, where I spent a year living alongside spies in order to experience, and to paint, their world.
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