24
24 has been my favourite number for as long as I can remember, I think it goes back to childhood when I was learning to write and experienced the enjoyment of drawing 2's and 4's. I'd like to say it's my lucky number but to be honest I have no evidence of this. What I do know is that 24 is going to be a year of change.
I have updated my 'About' page which despite being a painful task has been extremely fruitful in consolidating my thoughts, my mid-confusion of the last post has dissipated, I feel clearer. I spent hours with the Wordpress online "happiness engineer" smoothing out my website, I would say the experience made me far from happy but the website is better. I have entered work into the Jackson's art prize, I'm investigating residency options, painting a cohesive body of work whilst investigating gallery space for an exhibition.
Now I have said all these things I have to go and do it! To any artists out there, I know we get told this many times but honestly it is the best thing to fire you into action.
I currently have two completed works with statements, two others on the go and some ideas for the next pieces that I'm really excited about.
Common ground
Oil on canvas 120 x 100cm
My fascination with plant and fungal networks reflects a metaphoric relation to my painting process. The spaces these strange life forms inhabit as they forage, trade, adapt, relocate, and remodel mirrors the ways I drag, drape, tuft, intensify and neutralise; shifting pigment as I form and reform. The result becomes a trail of paint and thoughts on our planet’s diversity, all of us seeking out space in this ever-changing world.
Different rhythms
Oil on canvas 102 x 76cm
We move in so many ways; jostling, creeping, swaying, floating through this world on a journey through time and space, each with our own personalities and stories. My paintings begin with seemingly random marks and my collection of brushes, each holding their own personalities, become extensions of my thoughts and never cease to surprise me. The interchange of thought and action with no specific intention reflect diversity and the shifting between abstraction and representation, forming connections that speak to my experience of being in this world.
Unfinished 100 x 162cms
Unfinished 120 x 100cm