The art of Franki Beddows

I paint to get lost. It’s the moment of flow – where shapes, shadows and textures start to whisper – that keeps pulling me back to the canvas. In those early layers of acrylic, faces, figures, and strange little creatures begin to reveal themselves. I never go looking for them; I just listen. My inner voice takes the lead, and I follow.

I use whatever's needed – tools, brushes, even my fingers – to build the story. Every painting is a kind of emotional archaeology, where something hidden gets brought to the surface. Sometimes it's a feeling, other times a full-blown narrative I never expected.

The subjects can feel eerie or unsettling, and I'm good with that. I've always had a love for the macabre. As a kid, I'd sneak downstairs to catch horror films with my dad or borrow all the ghost books from the school library. That fascination with the darker edges of life has never left me.

It’s all part of the human experience – the dark and the light. We carry both. My work is just one way of letting it all speak.