Who’s the Unhinged Artist?

You might wonder why this website is called the ‘unhinged artist’. While I’m sure some of my friends and family think I qualify to use the title, a friend of mine once told me that you’ve got to be truly unhinged to imagine you can make a living as an artist. As she rightly pointed out, many of the art world’s biggest names died penniless, with their work only having any value after they died. That’s a fair point, and one I took to heart.

So I’ll call myself an unhinged artist. My name’s Curtis and I took up art seriously after moving back to the UK from Italy, where I’d been living for twelve or so years. Prior to that I’d only turned to art when I had enough spare time, which wasn’t often. But now I choose to make the time. Art is my relaxation as well as an obsession, whether I’m doing abstract paintings, sculpture or using furniture as alternative canvases.

What defines an artist?

In truth, I always think it sounds pretentious to call yourself an artist, unhinged or not. Art is something which lives inside all of us. In my humble opinion, people who create a lot of art simply have more spare time than those who don’t! If you enjoy painting, sculpting or anything else, whether your end product is art or not depends on you; if you like it, it’s art. If you don’t, it’s just doodles, underpaintings or material awaiting recycling. If someone pays you for a piece of art, I guess you can then call yourself an artist, part-time or not.

When I paint, I do it for me and nobody else. It’s what I do for relaxation and fun. If someone buys my art, that’s great, but if not I still enjoyed doing it. I’ve only rarely picked up a pencil, a brush or lump of clay and tried to create something I think someone else will like. I might do one-off pieces specifically for someone, be it a friend or customer, but I always need to like whatever I’m doing otherwise I won’t enjoy doing it. I like to try different things and often have a half dozen items on the go at any time, although at least half of them will never see the light of day. I like variety and can’t bring myself to mass produce endless variations of the same painting or same sculpture, even if many people selling art online do that by default.

Buying from me

If you see something in the gallery/shop pages that you like, just go ahead and buy it! If you see something that has already been sold but want it, or something similar to it, get in touch to see if I’m able to produce what you want as a private commission. Not everything can be reproduced accurately, especially the dutch pour/acrylic flow paintings I sometimes do, but many can.

Depending on the piece and depending on where you live, I may choose to deliver an item in person, simply because couriers have a habit of playing football with their packages regardless of how many ‘fragile’ warnings are on them. If I send by courier, I do my utmost to protect my artwork. I’m also more than happy for you to collect whatever you buy from my home in Braintree, Essex. I don’t sell anything on ‘approval’ so if you’re not sure if you’ll like it, don’t buy it!