My work explores my sexuality, as a gay male, and my past experiences in life. I do this through the medium of paint. The painting I’m submitting is called “Date Night”, it depicts my boyfriend and I before an imminent attack. My approach to painting has recently been to look at news articles that have affected the LGBTQ+ community. Date Night, was inspired by the event in London in which a lesbian couple were attacked on a bus. With this painting I aimed to draw attention to the dehumanising nature of this prejudiced attack and empower those who have been victim to similar attacks. My paintings almost always feature the motif of a self portrait, and a portrait of a loved one. In these paintings I’m placing myself, and others in a situation that could be life or death to see how I, or most importantly, my loved ones would react in this scenario.