"Natures child" Original charcoal drawing (Framed) by Michael Kelvin Davis
Living and growing up in the UK of Caribbean/African background Michael felt no connection to the African Culture or heritage. Through books and literature he began trying to bridge the gap of knowledge and relationship to the heritage he felt he'd lost. On top of that experiencing the way he is portrayed and received by the world due to his skin colour, he wondered what it would feel like to not be pre judged on first glance of his skin. What would it be like to live in a society not so dominated by a euro-centric worldly ideal of beauty? He imagines this would be what it's like for the tribes people of East Africa. Untouched by the world views and opinions they see the beauty and reverence of their skin and choose to daily enhance it with various natural items borrowed from nature. They paint themselves and mostly each other in clays, use nuts, leaves and branches to adorn their bodies in a celebration of nature and their part of it. The freedom to be whoever you are. "Natures child" portrays a softness with the powerful presence of a young tribes girl in decoration which he felt would best reflect the softness and hard edges charcoal mediums provide. Willow charcoal and charcoal pencil on toned paper.
Living and growing up in the UK of Caribbean/African background Michael felt no connection to the African Culture or heritage. Through books and literature he began trying to bridge the gap of knowledge and relationship to the heritage he felt he'd lost. On top of that experiencing the way he is portrayed and received by the world due to his skin colour, he wondered what it would feel like to not be pre judged on first glance of his skin. What would it be like to live in a society not so dominated by a euro-centric worldly ideal of beauty? He imagines this would be what it's like for the tribes people of East Africa. Untouched by the world views and opinions they see the beauty and reverence of their skin and choose to daily enhance it with various natural items borrowed from nature. They paint themselves and mostly each other in clays, use nuts, leaves and branches to adorn their bodies in a celebration of nature and their part of it. The freedom to be whoever you are. "Natures child" portrays a softness with the powerful presence of a young tribes girl in decoration which he felt would best reflect the softness and hard edges charcoal mediums provide. Willow charcoal and charcoal pencil on toned paper.
Living and growing up in the UK of Caribbean/African background Michael felt no connection to the African Culture or heritage. Through books and literature he began trying to bridge the gap of knowledge and relationship to the heritage he felt he'd lost. On top of that experiencing the way he is portrayed and received by the world due to his skin colour, he wondered what it would feel like to not be pre judged on first glance of his skin. What would it be like to live in a society not so dominated by a euro-centric worldly ideal of beauty? He imagines this would be what it's like for the tribes people of East Africa. Untouched by the world views and opinions they see the beauty and reverence of their skin and choose to daily enhance it with various natural items borrowed from nature. They paint themselves and mostly each other in clays, use nuts, leaves and branches to adorn their bodies in a celebration of nature and their part of it. The freedom to be whoever you are. "Natures child" portrays a softness with the powerful presence of a young tribes girl in decoration which he felt would best reflect the softness and hard edges charcoal mediums provide. Willow charcoal and charcoal pencil on toned paper.
Michael k Davis
Primarily a 2-D visual artist, I specialise in charcoal portraiture, oil painting and digital art. I have studied in the classical atelier style at London College of Fine Art Studios under Mark Chen and Domino Roe, which has been an essential training in stillness and patience as much as technique: I am an emergent artist at the beginning of my exhibiting career, although I have always drawn. An important strand of my work is the relationship between the human form and earth-derived, organic elements. This results in contemporary digital images, incorporating hand-drawn and painted elements with abstractions, for example, from crystallised minerals. I have created a range of mural prints with geodes, which grew from early experimentation. Much of my work explores the timelessness of early cultural aesthetics, especially black civilisations. I work out of a studio in Hastings which I share with my wife Joanna Charlotte.