Painting has always been a part of my life. There is not a day passes that I don’t think about, contemplate or actually paint. To paint, for me, is to respond to my existence. Through colour, shape, line, texture and form I continuously investigate the world. Art allows me a dialogue with nature and my existence. I was extremely lucky to have had fantastic open-minded Art Teachers at school. It was the 1960s and Art was playing an important role in rebuilding society after the devastation of war. Art in the 1960s broke the rules. It was angry, new, exciting, revolutionary, naughty and truly reflective of a world that was literally rebuilding its persona. Art was an important part of that healing and regenerative process. My teachers encouraged me to break the rules; try new mediums; turn the world up-side-down and genuinely struggle to master new skills. That teaching gave me a philosophy of creativity that has extended throughout my professional life as an Artist and a Theatre maker. I have always believed that Art has allowed me to find a public voice and interpret the world. The function of Painting and Theatre Making in my life, is to understand, dissect, reconstruct, reinterpret and often re-imagine the world by holding up a mirror to society. By looking deeply into that mirror, I begin to understand the world in which I live. Phil Clark 2015 Winner of the inaugural 2016 Saatchi Open Studio Award.