The Artist Psychedelic art gained widespread popularity around the psychedelic music of the 60s and 70s by such musicians as Jimi Hendrix, the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Velvet Underground, The Doors, Tangerine Dream and Pink Floyd. It was often seen in concert posters, album covers, advertising, and comic books. Psychedelic art has now become popular as the visual component of trance, techno and progressive dance music. It is often scene in visuals, flyers and posters at nightclubs, festivals and other music events. The artwork I create could best be described as psychedelic visionary art. It expands wide in form by embracing mysticsm, the hippy and mind-expanding culture of the 60s and early 70s through to the psychedelic trance scene of today. The pictures are created digitally and built up like an architectural structure. They start with the creation and exploration of a fractal, which then becomes the foundation and background of the picture. But what is a fractal? It is a mathematical representation of chaos - well not exactly - it is more like a computer generated tree that just keeps branching out again and again into infinity. Fractals are based on mathematical equations that never end, that is, no matter how much you enlarge the image, there is always the same amount of detail and a repetition of mathematically defined shapes in the enlarged image. Upon these backgrounds I then build the picture by creating the foregrounds such as planets, trees, stars and people by using layers. In most cases the picture has to move through several programs before completion. After adding various textures and materials to the image and applying the final touches with some of the paint tools in Photoshop the picture is finally complete.

My interest in the arts began in the 70s when I attended college and studied Graphic Design. I was mainly inspired by surrealism and many of the psychedelic record album covers and posters of the 60s and 70s. Before using the computer to create art, I painted mainly with oils including the Bob Ross method. A wonderful man, very close to nature, a fantastic landscape and seascape painter who gave me much inspiration although sadly no longer here. He brought a unique style of oil painting to viewers in the US and many other countries through his TV broadcasts. His techniques, brushes and paints are available from the Bob Ross website. I became interested in digital art in the late eighties and early nineties first using the Amiga 500 computer. Although very slow in comparison with today's machines, some of the programs available at this time were capable of producing some good results. With computer, graphic design, and some photography skills, my interest grew where now I spend many hours creating designs that would have been near impossible to achieve some years ago. Although I specialise in digital art I also enjoy viewing many other forms including the great masterpieces of the past, sculpture, ceramics, photography, traditional art and many of the modern and contemporary works of today. Art can be expressed in many different forms and created with a multitude of tools. From traditional brushes, knives, pencils, paints etc, to modern and digital.technology such as computers, cameras, sound equipment and video. My work is a demonstration of how art and technology can come together and be used to express the inner most thoughts and imagination of the artist. Brian Exton