Exhibition is another step forward for mouth artist

A tetraplegic mouth artist says a new exhibition of his work feels like "another step forward".

Henry Fraser, 32, who lives near Watford in Hertfordshire, was paralysed from the shoulders down in an accident in 2009.

His first exhibition for two years, Hand to Mouth IV on 14 and 15 September, consists entirely of work created since he left his parents and moved into his own home nearby.

"I’d say there is bolder stuff that I’ve done since being here," he said.

Fraser's 2022 exhibition included four years of work but his new display, at the Grove Hotel in Watford, is all work he has created since moving home in 2020

As a teenager, Fraser was a promising rugby player on the books of the Premiership club, Saracens.

During a post-exam holiday, aged 17, he dived into the sea and hit his head on the seabed, dislocating a vertebrae in his neck.

His memoir, The Little Big Things, was published in 2017 and has since been adapted into a musical which ran for six months in London’s West End.

It was in 2015 that Fraser began to rediscover his love of art.

He said he remembered seeing pictures by mouth artists while in hospital and his family encouraging him to "give that a go" - but he did not want to.

"My main focus when I was in hospital was just my training and my physio and trying to get as strong as possible, get home and be out in the real world again," he said.

"So I didn’t think about art at all from the moment the accident happened until January 2015, when I had a sore on my back and was bed bound for a few weeks."

Fraser said his subjects can be "literally anything", a colour combination he likes or "animals or objects that I think just look cool"

When he was able to sit up in bed, he found an app on his iPad he could use to paint by holding a stylus in his mouth and touching the screen.

He later taught himself how to draw and paint by holding utensils in a mouth stick.

"[It is hard] especially at the start when I wasn’t confident in my own abilities to do it," he said.

"I was very tentative with my brush strokes and took my time because I was having to really hold my neck and my head.

"Now I’m a bit more free, I’m not having to be so careful but it is still tiring so I limit myself to the number of days I paint in a week and hours I paint in a day so when I am painting I’m not pushing through any pain or fatigue.

"When I’m painting I’m enjoying myself, I’m not worried about anything else, I’m just making sure I’m having fun."

Fraser's painting Me on the Beach was used as the front cover of his memoir, The Little Big Things, in 2017

His new exhibition, at the Grove Hotel in Watford, is all work he has created since moving home in 2020, much of which he has not even shared on social media.

"It’s nice – it’s kind of another step forward," he said.

"I think I’ve just tried to be a bit more experimental.

"There will be some new styles and things I don’t think people will have seen me do yet... I’d say there is bolder stuff that I’ve done since being here."

Fraser said much of the new approach is due to now having his own studio, "my own space dedicated to my work and my art".

"I just feel like when I’m in this space I feel more creative," he said.

"There’s perfect light in here and I feel like I’m always in the right head space to just go for it. I actually love it."

September 2024 marks a year since the musical about his life premiered - The Little Big Things ran for six months at Soho Place in London’s West End, finishing in March this year and picking up a number of awards along the way

He admits much of the painting was done since The Little Big Things musical finished its run in March.

He said his paintings can take from two hours to five days to complete, with the average being "probably a couple of days, so about five hours of painting".

"While the show was on I didn’t really paint, I didn’t really do any work to be honest, I was just enjoying it too much but as soon as that finished I realised I actually needed to do something," he said.

"The months of May and June were kind of flat-out painting and trying to think of new ideas while trying to plan the exhibition, so it was quite fun but a tiring period."

Fraser also has a career as a motivational speaker and one of his quotes - to "accept and adapt" - is a lesson he said he has learnt through his experiences and is a message he tries to spread.

"Adversity has given me a gift," he said on his website.

He admits that without the accident he might never have rekindled the love he had for art as a child.

"It will soon be 10 years since I started painting which is pretty crazy actually, it’s flown by," he said.