Artist Profile: Luke Atkinson

Luke Atkinson is a Sydney artist producing beautiful, free-formed nude drawings. Atkinson shares his thoughts on his role as an artist, his inspiration and where he sees his work heading.

On the term ‘gay artist'  
"I call myself a gay man, but not a gay artist. I think they are two very different things where one does not influence the other at all. In my days as a workshop artist at Mardi Gras where I made costumes and sets, that was really as far as my creativity has been influenced by my sexuality, but now its just influenced purely by my artistic skills."  

On his early interest in drawing 
"I've always drawn. Mum used to save the cardboard out of the shorts packets for me to draw on. I continued that through school and went on to do two years of fine arts after my HSC. My first experience in life drawing was at Meadowbank TAFE where we would do nine hours a week. It's an important skill to have and I'm grateful for their classical and traditional training. I have achieved what I have now because of that training."  

On his subject matter 
"I just love drawing the human figure. I call it my kind of landscape as the body is made up from shapes, forms and lines that you also find in landscapes. I don't look at the human figure as flesh and bone or as a person, but rather as things that influence the marks that I put on paper."  

On his approach 
"I have been taking weekly classes on and off at the Brett Whiteley Studios for five years now I've also taken lessons by David Fairbairn, who has won the Archibald, at the National Art School. David taught me to slow down, as my drawing was very fast. That really changed my work and got me to explore my portraits."

On his aesthetics 
"I prefer drawing women to men; there is more to draw. Men are hard and straight up and down whereas women have beautiful lines and I just love a sensual, erotic and intimate line. There's nothing like a great set of tits - the bigger the women the better! It's not sexual, it's just aesthetically so beautiful."

On where his work is going 
"In the last few months I have had an interesting shift in my work. I'm trying to move away from just doing life drawing and just focus on specific parts of the body. Like a hip or an arm. I'm achieving results with this approach and I'd really like to continue so that my artwork is not just a drawing of a person but actually says more. I'm trying to make my work a little more conceptual."    

On success
"I sold 12 pieces out of 47 in my last show, which I was happy with and am hoping to show again at a friend's showroom. I'm just in the stages of working that all out now."  

Time Out will bring you details on Luke's new show in upcoming weeks. Watch this space.            

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