insideKENT Magazine Issue 84 - March 2019 | Page 42

ARTS+ENTERTAINMENT
DOMINIC KESHAVARZ CONT.
CLOSE-UP DETAIL
OF DOMINIC’S TECHNIQUE
How did you become an artist?
I drew all the time as a child and grew up in a house with loads of books on art.
I think that had a lot to do with it.
Part of my family is Dutch and so whenever we’d go over there to visit I’d love
looking at the Old Masters in the galleries and was particularly fond of the
woodcuts and engravings of people like Albrecht Durer and Martin Schongauer
– I think you can see their influence in the work I make now.
I studied fine art at Christ Church in Canterbury but didn’t finish and then spent
my 20s trying to be a musician. When I started a family in my 30s and couldn’t
really commit to music anymore, I found that drawing came back into my life
and I haven’t looked back since. It’s been like a long lost friend returning.
What is the most unusual, daring, or interesting commission you’ve
ever received, or piece of work you’ve ever produced?
I held my first solo show at D Contemporary in Mayfair in 2016, and as
part of that the curator requested that I create a large scale piece around two
metres long.
I was daunted at first as my process is slow, and I doubted my abilities to keep
a grip on the different elements of a picture that large.
It would have been easy to have lost control of the overall harmony of the picture
while getting engaged in the detail, but after six months it was finished and I’m
very pleased with it.
It’s called Rostrenon and I’ll be showing it as part of my next exhibition.
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What is it about Kent that
inspires you? are less interested in specific subject
matter than in creating a feeling.
I grew up in Kent, so a lot of the
associations I have with the landscape
now are based in my childhood. I used
to play out by fishing lakes and on
wasteland and I notice that a lot of
the subjects of my pictures are familiar
from childhood. I’ll be showing new work and old and
for the first time prints of some of my
older work will be available to buy.
I made a drawing of the Swingbridge
in Faversham and this is certainly
somewhere I spent a lot of time as a
kid, catching crabs and trying not to
fall into the mud flats. The marshes
in Oare and Harty Ferry are a
particular favourite too.
Can you tell us more about the
joint exhibition with Simon
Ashmore at Creek Creative?
Simon and I met recently and, I think,
recognised something in common in
terms of how we approach making
our work and what we hope to evoke.
He’s a highly regarded photographic
artist who uses traditional salt print
and cyanotype techniques to make his
images. Like my work, I think they
Where else can we see
your work?
I show at the Lilford Gallery in
Canterbury. I also have pieces at 19
Preston Gallery in Faversham.
What else is coming up for you
in 2019?
I’ll be doing the art fairs in London
over the summer. The Landmark Art
Fair on the 18 th and 19th May in
particular is really interesting.
And there’s the New English Art Club
Summer Exhibition at the Mall
Galleries to which I submit every year.
I’ve been selected there for the past
few years and won the Bowyer
Drawing Prize in 2018.
www.dominickeshavarz.com