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Marcus Aitken is a contemporary artist and painter, living and working in South London. He has a First Class Honours degree in Illustration and film studies from University of Arts London What inspires your work as an artist?  For me, it’s all about the physicality of painting and connecting with my materials, tools, and surfaces. It’s very much a performance, it's raw, it's primal and gives me an enormous sense of freedom when I paint. Who are your biggest influences? It's hard not to be influenced by EVERYTHING around you. As generic an answer as it sounds, I still love going to a gallery and just being inspired by art in all its forms. Cy Twombly and Pollock are the big name influences on my work I'd say. What does your work mean to you? Everything - I couldn’t stop being an artist, it’s the ‘creative curse’ – I have to do it. What techniques do you use? I really like to explore the tools I use to carve into the paint marks I make, this can be anything from my hands, blocks of wood, pencils, rubbers, the list goes on...