Lucy McLauchlan

Beat13 / Lucy McLauchlan "Tacit" from Beat13 on Vimeo.

Beat13 / Lucy McLauchlan - Fame Festival 2009. from Beat13 on Vimeo.

At 'gone tomorrow' we are big fans of Birmingham born artist Lucy McLauchlan not only because she is a fellow Brummie but because her work represents to us the very best in 21st century versatile urban Art.

Lucy is represented by the same London gallery as Banksy, Jamie Hewlett, Stanely Donwood. Working mainly in monochrome McLauchlan is one of the rising stars of british art. Painting on canvas, ceramics, walls, cars, riot shields old paint tins Lucy combines art deco, psychedelic and childlike motifs to make pieces that are delicate and tender yet engaging and provocative.

As a kid, the Brummie-based McLauchlan was perpetually scribbling. “I always had a pen in my hand,” she says. She didn’t move too far to her first medium, the marker pen. She says: “I started using markers because they were cheap and dried quickly, and the fact they’re permanent adds a challenge. The mistakes often turn into my favourite details.”

These days, she uses paint brushes (“attempting large-scale work in markers gave me chronic RSI”) and describes her work as “improvised fluid mark-making”.

When it comes to getting the creative juices flowing, she swears by a dose of acerbic comic Bill Hicks. “Bill always inspires me,” she says. Sometimes she’ll work through the night and sleep in her studio but there are no set rules: “I’m lucky enough to live a lifestyle relatively free of normal restrictions… if it’s a sunny day, I’d rather go for a bike ride, do some gardening or paint outside.”

Lucy has exhibited all over the world, from London's Victoria and Albert Museum to the Eclectic Gallery in London and Tokyo. She has also been interviewed and featured in magazines worldwide including Hidden Tracks, Hand to Eye, Creative Review, Graphic International, Modart and Juxtapoz.