Artist statement

I have recently completed my MFA at Oxford Brookes, and am looking for studio space. While I have painted for many years, it is only since 2019 that I have had the confidence to consider myself a professional artist and started to develop and exhibit a body of work that has a dialogue with the world around me. I intend to make up for those lost years! I would love to be part of the Magdalen Road Artist Studios community to learn from my peers, find opportunities to collaborate and develop my work further.  

My primary method is abstract painting, with a basis in experimental, free-flow drawing. The development of each painting grows from observation of dynamic movement, in particular of water: the continuation of flow; its immersive, sometimes disorientating, qualities. This grew from my love of swimming in the rivers around Oxford, a habit developed in the pandemic. Using acrylic media and other materials that react to water (iron filings, copper compounds, salt), I build up a multi-layered painting that has a fluid relationship with the initial starting point. I’m interested in the accumulation and removal of layers of paint, the link that these layers have with memory, the relationship between previous and current versions of a thing, and the preservation of interim stopping points. I’m also interested in how a 2D painting can offer an immersive experience, absorbing attention in contemplation, in a similar way to the physical experience of immersion in water.

This exploration of the immersive and flowing qualities of water has recently developed in a new direction, exploring the interaction of biomorphic abstract forms with geometric abstraction. We are familiar with using frameworks to understand the world, to organise our lives, and all too easily we can disregard the mismatch with the complex and everchanging realities underneath. I have been experimenting with painted iterations of this dynamic, creating a conversation between orderly and fluid forms, exploring the tension between control and chance, the possibilities of going beyond the edge of a painting, or playing with what forms an edge or boundary.

As well as the painted canvas, I am also exploring the possibilities for taking the images I create into textiles. I have recently been taking digital images of paintings and printing them in a mirror repeat onto furls of silk, playing with the idea of endless flow, and experimenting with different ways to install the work for an immersive experience.

Future projects

Over the next 12 months I plan to build on my observations of the energy flow and immersive aspects of water by exploring a parallel dynamic: the relationship between live music performance and an audience. I will be working with several musicians, painting in the sidelines of live shows, observing and recording the flow of energy between performer and audience. Back at the studio, using the live drawings from the performance as a starting point, I will work with the muscle memory and new habits of movement developed from this immersive environment and translate that into the creation of new paintings. This exploration offers a parallel with my existing exploration of frameworks and messy realities too: the contrast between music performed in rehearsed and the live performance. I intend to explore how the meeting point of biomorphic and geometric in visual forms might be replicated in a live music environment.