About

Phillip Saunders is a multidisciplinary artist and arts educator based in Toronto, Ontario. His practice includes oil painting, charcoal drawing, mural making, and digital illustrations. Phillip explores two worlds in his art practice, his oil paintings contrast sharply against his mural works; his oil practice takes on a traditional realist approach reminiscent of the old masters, where his mural work take on a contemporary pop art feel.

As pertaining to Phillip’s mural art, he explores the interplay of how colours couple with feeling in his colourful portraits. His distinctive use of colour and abstract patterns portray a unique perspective of human emotion through color theory, with the goal of invoking joy, reflection and happiness in the viewer.

Phillip also takes a keen interest in aspects of classical realism, his oil paintings are primarily focused on the Black Body set in landscapes of ancient times. For the past 4 years, Phillip’s oil paintings have been exploring the realms of ancient Bantu spirituality and what is seen as sacred, in hopes of resuscitating past religious cultural imagery. His work attempts to bond the past and present through figurative expressions nuanced in West African igbo culture, which is exemplified in his most recent series "Hebrew Nuance". Although his work varies from canvas to street art murals and may not have the same aesthetic consistencies, his paintings are still linked through reoccurring spiritual overtones.