Moises Moreno is a Spanish-born artist living in London, and working out of his studio in Bow, East London, where I met and photographed him. But how did he go from the boy who liked drawing at school, growing up in the small city of Cuenca (central Spain), to the artist I met in his London studio, producing incredible 6-ft high bold-coloured abstract oil painting that he sells worldwide?…. .

‘……..I mean, all kids like drawing when they’re young. It’s one of the first things you do, right? You start drawing before even learning to write, but then as you get a little older you grow out of it, and start doing other things. But I didn’t stop. I just kept on drawing. In fact, it was the one thing at school that I truly enjoyed. I always loved doing really technical, detailed drawings, so I didn’t choose to study art, instead I went for CAD(Computer Aided Design) and left school to work as a draughtsman drawing detailed building plans and technical blue prints.’

But yearning more freedom to be creative, Moises chose to focus on 3D modelling and started to design furniture, to compliment the technical drawing side of his work.

Then in 2011 he moved from Spain to London, but at that time his art and creative outlet was still confined to his technical drawing and 3D modelling. However two years later, in 2013, a life-changing serious illness forced his artistic journey to change course, when he had his second acute episode of Macular Degeneration - an eye disease that causes severe vision loss in a short period of time and distorted vision. He had to take several months off work to recover, and then was left with distorted vision, which meant he could no longer do the detailed, technical drawings that he had done before. But in that time recovering , unable to work, he went back to the basics of drawing the way he loved to do so much as a kid.

After his recovery he continued to draw, experimenting with different mediums, then finally found his true passion for painting with oils, at the same time as moving into his first studio space in 2016 in a building called the ‘The Rum Factory’ next to Tobacco Dock, in East London. However just a year later, the building was closed to be redeveloped into luxury flats, and Moises had to leave along with all the other artists with studios there. That’s when he moved to his current studio in Bow Arts in East London, where he has been for the last 7 years, and while he admits the space isn’t really big, he loves working there, as it has a real sense of community and he finds it inspiring being surrounded by so many other great artists.

Moises has just finished one exhibition this weekend in Carrejo, Spain and has another current exhibition at Ferrens Art Gallery in Hull. He sells his work in the UK, Spain and across the world.