THE AMATEUR: 2nd Edition

From darkness to lightness.

It happened that I used art, short poems, often written and sent via mobile phone messages to very special friends, to make sense of my new world outside my troubled days in Africa (Angola, 1961-1994).

It was definitely a healing process and a long journey of liberation from a harsh but not always innocent past.

The book goes through all my paintings on canvas, one by one, and then explains the reasons for their creation.

The Amateur 2nd edition, contains a few more paintings in acrylic than the first edition.

I don't make excuses for the quality of my paintings and pictures. For me, the process of creating them, amateurish as they may be, was simply another challenge that helped me to find a better inner life.

This is the experience that many can have and that I would like to pass on. However, painting was not enough for me, I had to write about all this and more. It worked.

The book Brushes & Mice, free from the thorns of my past, is still, in terms of artwork, a sequel to The Amateur 2nd edition.

This book that will be published in 2023, contains images and stories that are lighter and much funnier than anything I have ever been able to produce - and that is a good sign.

Phillip Reese