Ian Mood is a professional artist that paints from his local studio and has featured in collections including Saatchi Gallery London and Brooklyn Art Library, New York. He recently presented his insights to our Fine Art students and gave them an opportunity to ask questions about getting ahead in the art world, establishing their practice being a contemporary commercial artist.
Lorna Lakin, a final year Fine Art student was excited to start painting after having a one-to-one discussion with Ian. "He changed my thinking around being a contemporary commercial artist. I've always had a vague idea of what to do after my degree, but he demonstrated a real-world example of what I could do - that actually really resonated with me."
Lorna added "A conversation with an artist where you share your work is always helpful, but when you find an artist that works in a similar way, it's like gold. After the lecture, we discussed different approaches to mark making, which may sound trivial, but it really helped me to realise that some of the testing that I do isn't just me wasting time until a moment of enlightenment arrives. It's how all artists work. It's hard to explain, but I'm more confident in my own practice now and it's confirmed the professional direction that I want to go in, which makes it easier to set goals and objectives too.
I also went to his exhibition a week later - really helpful and massively recommended!"