Why I Choose Canvas Over Digital
I love digital art. It lets me experiment quickly, sketch ideas, and explore concepts I might never attempt straight onto canvas. It’s also the main tool I use for my commercial work — it fits naturally into my workflow, allows flexibility, and helps me develop ideas efficiently.
But there’s something about physical artwork — its permanence and its weight — that keeps pulling me back.
Maybe it’s the realisation that technology isn’t as permanent as we like to think. Power grids fail. Files get lost. Platforms vanish. A painting, on the other hand, can survive for centuries if it’s cared for properly. It doesn’t need electricity to exist.
I grew up aware that most of the history, culture, and knowledge we have comes from the wealthy — those who had the means to record and preserve their stories. The voices of working-class people are often missing because their lives weren’t documented or valued in the same way. That matters to me.
So while I embrace digital art for commercial projects and concept development, I still paint on canvas because it feels necessary — both as a physical legacy and as a way to honour the forefathers who built our world and developed the structures of education and history we rely on today.
These foundations are still important, but they should exist to support and inform us — not to restrict creativity or control progress.
Painting on canvas is more than self-expression. It’s a way of leaving behind something real and tangible — a record of my voice, my class, and my time — something that can be experienced long after I’m gone.