I'm a student in my 3rd year of a degree in painting at Wimbledon.
My art practice responds to the use of technology such as mobile phones, I Pods,Chat-Rooms, Skype and Face Book and how this might be impacting on how we socialise today.I have made a number of observations of commuters in and around London using such technology.
My work attempts to explore psychological interior spaces through the vehicle of modern mobile technology. I am interested in how our privacy and intimate moments are becoming more on show; as we hold private conversations with loved ones in the middle of a crowd. Through my style and palette used in my painting I try to capture the intimacy and interiority of the moment.
The likes of Face Book and other social networking sites have become huge over such a relatively short space of time and has become the contemporary way of socializing. We appear to have more friends in the virtual world than we have in real life. Our 'Friends' lists often contain the names of people we have never met or, may never meet face to face and yet, we call them 'Friends'. I find this interesting as it appears the very meaning of the word 'Friend' is changing.
I am interested in the juxtaposition of the 'face to face' and the 'remote' (through technology), ways of how we socialize and communicate. I feel something is lost when we are not 'face to face'. In response to this I like to sketch and paint portraits.

To keep up my drawing practice I am doing a blog whereby I have set myself the task of sketching people 's portraits each day. These range from courtroom sketching, live TV sketching (moving image), Skype, Chat-Rooms, Facebook Profiles, Webcam and those of live portrait models.

Much of my sketches and portraits can be seen on my blog on.....
http://debrapaintingblog.blogspot.com/ … Read More