Oxford student from Grantham ‘connects with love for the natural world’ in his art

A young artist from Grantham with a love for nature talks about his love for art.

Alex Graham, an Oxford student and who grew up in Grantham, is showcasing his art in the exhibition at the end of the month.

It wasn’t until Alex attended The King’s School that he started to regularly do art.

Since he was younger, Alex has “loved the natural world”, and this is portrayed in his art.

He said: “I often played around with paints when I was little, but I didn’t start doing art regularly until I started at King’s, and when I began to develop my skills, I was able to connect my love for the natural world with my art.

“We had a fantastic art teacher there who encouraged me to do GCSE and subsequently A-Level art, despite my plans to study chemistry at university.

“In my art studies during GCSE and A-Level, my primary focus was always on colour.

“I loved to experiment and play around with bold and striking colours in my work, especially in landscape paintings.”

During his studies, he discovered the work of artists such as Turner and Monet and this further inspired Alex’s “creativity and experimentation”.

After this, he started to focus on landscape painting and impressionist techniques.

Alex added: “As opposed to a photo which simply shows a landscape as it literally appears, the aim in my work is always to inspire in the viewer, the emotion and beauty that I experience when I am in the landscape.

“A picture can never do the scene justice in this way. The bold use of colour is an important part of this.

“Human beings naturally have emotions attached to colours and by selecting the right palette, this allows me, as an artist, to communicate my own perception of a scene to the viewer.”

Whilst away from university, Alex has been “intensively developing” his style and portfolio over the summer.

This was showcased in his exhibition held at the weekend.

Alex is open to commissions for his art and also has plans to open another exhibition in the future.

He can be reached on Instagram on his handle @agraham.art or by his website at https://agrahamart.wixsite.com/artgallery.

Alex can also be contacted by email at agrahamart21@gmail.com.