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Francis and his family have come back  to Cromwell, bringing with him this body of work, the outcome of years of obsessive drawing and painting, which is now being exhibited for the first time at OCTA Gallery.

Initially inspired by Roy Lichtenstein, whose cartoon like imagery copied the heroesand villains and characters of 1950s comic books such as the Phantom, Francis moved on to look at the urban art of Keith Haring - new age pop culture and tags. From this evolved the very original and intriguing personal tag which appears inmost of his work – HABIT

Process driven, Francis draws his ideas out first, and selects images from thesedrawings to develop in his paintings. His technique involves spray painting background surfaces, before painting outlines and details in with a brush. In this practice of outlining figures and forms, he was influenced by N.Z. Artists Colin McCahon and Nigel Brown - both painters whose work he admires. The intense use of light and dark evident in these works may emanate from the work of both of these painters, as well as from the Renaissance painter Carravaggio, whose dramatic portraits impressed Francis greatly.

But mostly these works reflect the exuberance of pop culture, alongside the rawness of street art , tagging, and a personal interpretation of the angst of a youthful sub culture.

Gail de Jong- OCTA Gallery

Location

OCTA, Old Cromwell Town