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I spent much of my childhood watching the kind of cartoons that were ever popular with kids. I would start drawing Bugs Bunny and Mickey Mouse whenever I got the chance. Before long my interest in drawing led me to move to cars and portraits, starting off using pencils then pastels.

In the early 80s, I attended a short course on pastel portraiture under the tutelage of Melissa Dring. She taught me so much more than I would have learnt by myself and she has been greatly influential to this day.

For twenty years, I attended life classes, which were held by my close friend the late John Luce Lockett, an accomplished professional artist himself.  I also had the opportunity to take classes by Sonia Hawes whose teaching allowed me to experiment with speed sketching, observation and drawing from memory.

For a few years, I worked in Communication Support for the Stroke Association. The purpose of this organisation is to support stroke survivors with communication difficulties by giving the space to carry out different activities. These activities can include, amongst others, art, music, gardening, cooking and day trip to the Victoria & Albert Museum. We came up with the idea to teach stroke survivors how to draw and, where necessary, how to draw with their non-dominant hand.

I currently work as a Speech and Language Therapy Senior Practitioner in the stroke ward. I have used what I have previously taught stroke survivors to aid me in dealing with my patients; I always try different approaches to help them build up their skillset again. 

I have worked with many media over the years but I now specialise in red chalk for portraits. For caricatures, I mainly stick to digital art and I continue to expand on different techniques.

Pradeep Rajguru

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