KAREN WHITE GALLERY: iconic:a

iconic:a has some amazing work in the gallery. His art is extremely detailed and finished to a very high standard. It's also well priced and would make a great addition to any household. Here is a paragraph taken from his blog:

iconic:a fine art can be described as “Pop Art done well” or “Fine Art for Nerds”

Having worked as an artist in the video games industry for the past 11 years, (on such games as Grand Theft Auto IV and Crackdown) as an Environment Artist. It had always been my desire to get back into doing traditional art. Come late 2009, a year and a half after emigrating to Australia from Scotland, I finally took the plunge and bought myself some cheap oil paints, brushes and canvases. With some fear and trepidation I did a couple of paintings. The inferior materials and ring rust was evident in the work, but they weren’t terrible, or as terrible as I had first feared.

These painting are definitely not terrible, they are fantastic. Here is our little interview.

How do you create your work?

My artistic process is very much based on the Venetian and Flemish methods of painting.
I tend to transfer my image to the canvas, I do a light red or warm base wash to tone my canvas. Once that dries I do the bulk of my work with just white and raw umber. Once I am happy with the under painting I let that dry, then I just do layer upon layer of transparent and semi-transparent glazes until I am happy with the final result.

What inspires you to create?

My iconic:a work is inspired by retro classic stuff from TV and films. Be it Star Wars, Star Trek, Classic movie monsters etc. Basically for this work I want to do paintings of things that resonate with people but to the best of my abilities.

What are your hopes for the future?

My plans are to make a living from my art. Having worked as a commercial artist and a video games artist for the past 11 years, I am now at the point I just want to do traditional art again. Not being told what to do or doing someone else's vision.

Name a few things that make you happy?

Being married to my lovely wife Melissa. Living in Australia (I'm from the UK) so I love living in the warm sunshine all year round. when a painting works and just getting better and faster at making art.

Who are some of your favourite Artists?

This is too long a list for me to write. There are a number of contemporary artists I love. But I can't look past the old masters. Rib era, Rubens and Rembrandt are my particular favourites.

I always ask who peoples favourite music artists are as I like to stick a clip at the end.

I have always loved Electronic music, and have been buying it obsessively since around 1991.
I like Ambient, Electro, Detroit, and some drum n' bass music. As long as it's melodic, melancholic and well done I will like it. The stuff I like is very much underground and not stuff you are going to hear in mainstream media.