Hi, I'm Derek Watkins, Welcome to my studio

I’m a contemporary artist, creating expressive, ballet-inspired paintings that explore grace, movement and the inner life. Through layered colour, gestural acrylics and energetic mark-making, I try to capture that poised tension just before flight.

Each piece starts with music and memory; the figure becomes a vessel for feeling — rhythm, emotion, release. My aim isn’t likeness alone but resonance: that quiet moment when the work meets something true in you.

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Derek Watkins in studio with a ballet painting