Dameon Priestly

Dameon's paintings engage in a series of narratives which subtly weave their way through the paintings: a visual depiction of what can lie beneath the surface; at times in a seemingly innocent image.

The stories they tell are those which the viewer does not necessarily want to know; and yet forces them to fill in that which is not always apparent, resulting in the uncomfortable recognition of a disturbing undertone.

With rare exceptions, his stories end with disturbing circumstances; as he captures his subject's quiet desperation, with full emotional tension, anxiety and melancholy. Portrayed against everyday back-drops where the drama unfolds.

The melancholic and often underlying tragic images in Dameon's work, are not faded Polaroids of times past in an album, but rather are still vivid snapshots of a time which, although not dated, seem familiar and recent, because of the relevance in things unchanged.

His work lends itself to those basics of old-fashioned storytelling: plot, character, and action; combined with traditional themes in art - sex, politics and religion. The culminating results within the paintings are sometimes both simultaneously beautiful and haunting; or arresting in their strength.

Dameon sources literature; both fact and fiction, movies, religion, social and political history as his inspirational pool; he lives and works in London and has sold paintings nationally and internationally.