Artist Cain Caser is known for his abstract and vibrant art.

He is exhibiting his work at John Lewis’s new picture gallery which opened at the Wood Street store on April 21 and will feature a myriad of artists including landscape, art vinyl, pop art, figurative, abstract and still life.

Here, the 39-year-old East Molesey man talks to the Surrey Comet and Elmbridge Guardian about what inspires him.

SC: Can you remember when you were first inspired by graffiti?

CC: I was aged six and it was under the M3 at Sunbury Cross. It was written in emulsion and read "SHAM 69 BORSTAL BREAKOUT".

"I knew it wasn't supposed to be there so it always seemed more real. The first graffiti I did myself was to copy from the book Subway Art in 1985.

SC: What is the subject of your work?

CC: "All the paintings are meant as portraits but more the character or state of mind of an individual rather than a physical depiction.

”I'd say the peculiarity of what, where and when we are is the biggest inspiration.

"The vivid quality of hallucination is the sort of look I'm interested in.

SC: Are you a spontaneous artist or do you spend time planning for a piece of work?

CC: "The spontaneity is in the way I plan beforehand using a collage of drawings and painted paper, photocopying, cutting up, etc, until I arrive at an unexpected outline.

SC: Have you ever cringed at pieces of work you have produced?

CC: "They never live up to what I imagined but at the same time I’m glad I got the idea down.

SC: Who would you most like to meet?

CC: ”I would most like to meet artist Jean-Michel Basquiat in early 80s New York.

"No other artist's work has had such an effect on me, it made everything I'd seen before seem weak, polite and impotent.”