London-based Punam Gaur is currently completing her final year of a BA Fine Art degree. Amongst her main influences are expressionist and surrealist artists such as Karel Appel, David Hockney, Lucien Freud and Frida Kahlo.

The artist’s love of portraiture began at the age of 4, drawing faces with only her imagination and her mind free of preconceptions; recalling feelings of anticipation as her work approached something vaguely human, becoming inspired to bring them to life.

Whilst her current work also appears to centre around the portrait, she weaves into them a sense of personal narrative, with elements that resonate with her own experiences. In her recent work she explores the way in which our thoughts influence our lives. Using visual auto-suggestion in her work, Punam strives to remain positive amongst negative situations, thereby thriving and growing regardless of environment, finding strength and courage in the face of diversity and difficulty.

Punam mostly uses oil paint for intensity of pigment. Her colours are chosen to describe the emotion, to compliment her story; or just with instinct and intuition, rather than a realistic representation of the world.