Tony South
Artist Statement
Born in 1964, working class South Yorkshire family, dad was an artist until family came along. After leaving school I had the choice of going to university for a fine art degree or touring the country playing the drums for a pro covers band, so being eighteen decided on the latter as it sounded more glam.1994 I had to pack up because of alcholism. In 96 after many times in rehab finally hit rock bottom and stopped drinking and have been totally sober for 10 years.
In those ten years I went back to art which also helped in recovery, I taught myself to paint and became pro motorsport artist which although commercially was good,creatively was stifling.I met up with a group of creative people in Rotherham and Sheffield and started working more towards the human form and until 2004 my work was entirely commission based(see attached photo).At the beggining of 2005 i decided to stop commissions and paint just for myself
The paintings I now produce are exactly where I want to be right now, they are honest and reflect some of my darker thoughts on society.I try not to paint with texture as I think the power of the image is more important to me.The image of the fighting dogs beside the more vulnerable child seems somewhat disturbing but really the dog usually looks intimidated or placid in the scene due to the childs lack of fear.I try to inject a bit of dark humour in the work as I am not a social worker for todays problems merely an onlooker. the last painting entitled acab reflects my thoughts as a recovering alcholic and also now being a parent myself worrying about the rise in teen alcholism and lack of fear and self worth that goes with it hence the bricks spelling acab which was an old seventies hooligan tattoo which the initials stood for all coppers are bastards.I'm not much of an artspeak bloke so I'll leave it at that for now.
cheers
Tony South.
In those ten years I went back to art which also helped in recovery, I taught myself to paint and became pro motorsport artist which although commercially was good,creatively was stifling.I met up with a group of creative people in Rotherham and Sheffield and started working more towards the human form and until 2004 my work was entirely commission based(see attached photo).At the beggining of 2005 i decided to stop commissions and paint just for myself
The paintings I now produce are exactly where I want to be right now, they are honest and reflect some of my darker thoughts on society.I try not to paint with texture as I think the power of the image is more important to me.The image of the fighting dogs beside the more vulnerable child seems somewhat disturbing but really the dog usually looks intimidated or placid in the scene due to the childs lack of fear.I try to inject a bit of dark humour in the work as I am not a social worker for todays problems merely an onlooker. the last painting entitled acab reflects my thoughts as a recovering alcholic and also now being a parent myself worrying about the rise in teen alcholism and lack of fear and self worth that goes with it hence the bricks spelling acab which was an old seventies hooligan tattoo which the initials stood for all coppers are bastards.I'm not much of an artspeak bloke so I'll leave it at that for now.
cheers
Tony South.