The thirty-six paper based-images exhibited were inspired by a 2017 painting, Technicolour Seascape, and were created in the order they appeared. Within this process two large canvased works were generated, which were also included: Sea Embraces Sun and Sun is Held.

Technicolour Seascape was a breakthrough piece for me that captured a clarity of stroke and colour I hadn't achieved before and there was something in the combination of the palette that felt very powerful. The whole process was exhilarating: a mixture of being submerged in the moment and stepping back to watch what was unfolding. It was like a dance between colour, breathing, control and surrender. I realised that two earlier pieces, The Point Between and Fallen Angel both painted in 2012, marked the beginning of this dance.

During the first Covid-19 lockdown, just five months after the birth of my son, I returned to the studio so very hungry for the chance to escape into the dance. These works are the result. The explosions of colour and movement in the paper-based images are safely contained within bordered space, unconsciously expressing the intensity of the wider experience that I was trying to integrate. The 5ft square canvases are neither safe nor contained!

I started by using acrylic on paper then introduced the oil paints one by one. Given my intention to replicate and repeat I was intrigued by the variation in character that emerged in each piece. My original plan was to complete twenty-four works within the paper-based series, but as the process developed and new techniques arose I was driven to do more.

The lightness I found within this creative experience had been all the more present for the potent heaviness that surrounded it. What I feel, in the end, is that Inner Scapes is a celebration of the alchemic nature of Art: the transmutation of loss, separation and isolation birthed into sublime joy and bliss. In this way Art becomes a mathematical equation, a science of equal forces. And I am reminded once again of Arts' ability to lift us all into the dance of being truly alive.

Circles In 2009 the form that kept emerging throughout my practice was the circle. They were: cells; eggs; stones; the never ending cycle and the return to completion. + Read more

Circles
In 2009 the form that kept emerging throughout my practice was the circle. They were: cells; eggs; stones; the never ending cycle and the return to completion.

+ Read more