User:Ccfaulkner

Clayton Faulkner was born in Johannesburg, South Africa in 1967. Clayton is a self-taught artist.

In 1987 Clayton was conscripted to do his 2-year military service. During this period he undertook many commissions for the SADF painting portraits and artworks of military buildings. The SADF provided a studio and he convinced the military that providing leave and transport to surfers wishing to take part in the Gunston 500 was no less outrageous than providing an artist with the same privileges when it came to exhibiting art. The SADF provided everything he needed to exhibit at the Grahamstown Festival. BAWART Exhibition 1987. He was invited to join an art movement called BAWART. It was largely made up of artists from the Port Elizabeth Technicon, Cape Town, Johannesburg and Pretoria. The movement explored the tension between opposites. It was during the height of apartheid and naturally Clayton explored this subject. This was later to come back in nightmares for many years.

It was the early hours of a Tuesday morning when the door to his room was knocked down and members of the security police dragged him out in his underwear threw him into a van and proceeded to take him everywhere he had been in the previous two weeks. He was kept awake for two days without food, being called a terrorist amongst other insulting words. This was all caused by a selection of posters and leaflets he had collected for a series of artworks. The leaflets were of the Black Sash, Cosatu and a Free Nelson Mandela poster. The more he explained that he is an artist, the more they called him a terrorist. He was eventually let go without being formerly charged. All artistic privileges including his studio were taken away.

During the period 1989 – 1991 he joined a small in house advertising studio as a bromide camera operator and soon moved up and became one of the first people to do full adverts completely electronically on a computer. He continued to participate in smaller private exhibitions in the Yeoville art circuit and undertook various commissions. He developed a cartoon series called the Bubble Dragons. These were to be published in a magazine called 2-21. He was given full-page spots.

In 1992 Clayton ran clubs and in 1993 he opened the Midlite Café and Gallery. It was a late night venue for creative thinkers and artists. Exhibitions took place in 1993 showcasing several South African Artists. Later that year Clayton got married and decided to create the largest painting on canvas in South Africa. (Unofficial). This enormous painting measured four stories high by 18 meters across. It was done to highlight the plight of children and to raise awareness for Operation Hunger. This was supported and sponsored by Pick ‘n Pay and Dulux. Radio 5 DJ Barney Simon gave his full support, advertising the event everyday for a week. Barney Simon was also the MC with the band Wozani providing the entertainment.

The period 1994 to 2000 Clayton produced many paintings, murals and commissions selling to smaller galleries and to individuals. 1998 saw the birth of his daughter. He studied screen writing and produced a screenplay for his Bubble Dragons. In 2000 Clayton and his wife Roz decided to swap roles whereby he would be a stay-at-home dad. Clayton moved to Ballito for a period before moving to London. This afforded him the opportunity to experience the London art scene. This period until now, Clayton has amassed huge volumes of work preparing to re enter the public arena as an artist.

2003 – 2004 Clayton produced a series of very personal Oil paintings entitled Ballito. Seven of these artworks have gone missing with a French art dealer. These oils are seascapes with children playing. Clayton has put out an offer to anyone who recovers these artworks; they can have them for nothing provided it leads to the French Art dealer. These can be viewed on the artists website. Use Yahoo and search CC Faulkner.

2004 is the year that his daughter finished her first year of school. The time had arrived to come out of reclusion after 4 years and take his whole virtual art world and make it reality.

Clayton believes that through his creative and artistic abilities he can make a difference to people in need and the environment. This will be achieved through a series of images that set world records for being “first’s” in the world. (Official Guinness World Records) These events will coincide with competitions and fund raising initiatives to benefit worthy causes. A total of 12 images are planned over the next 3 years leading up to the artwork (currently in discussions) that will make world art history which can never be challenged, making it not only an African first but a world first.