Colour, Texture, Gesture
Painting for me is like a dance, a movement both in body and spirit. I reach out with my intuition, connect with something I don’t really understand with my mind, and I listen to what the voices there tell me. “This colour”, they say. “That texture, add that one”. Or “nonono, not enamel this time — now you need oils”. And what comes out is an expression of a higher self that I didn’t even know existed, an understanding of things I did not understand before.
Browse my paintings portfolio below, and I hope some of them sing to you a truth and a meaning that opens your mind and soul
.
.
This piece came together in many stages over the course of more than a year, never quite right because I wasn’t yet ready to understand what I was trying to tell myself. It gelled into this now final version when I was finally able to understand – One can be of something and at the same time an observer of that something, both part of and separate from simultaneously.
Our reality is dualistic in nature – 1/0, ying/yang, rich/poor, here/there – and much of my artwork explores that dualism, the contrast and conflict that happens when we identify as either one thing or another – in one place or another. The observer is that part of me that transcends duality and materiality; Simultaneously part of the world, made up of worldly material, yet also beyond it, above/apart from it. It is the quantum nature of consciousness, and it allows us to transcend the material by taking a step back, widening our perspective, and observing the whole while still being a part of that whole.
.
.
.
.
This painting was made after a walk on the first beautiful day of spring. The feeling of the sun warming my shoulders, the perfume of the cherry blossoms on the breeze, the excitement and exuberance of the first new stirrings of life after a long winter. It is joyful and untethered, and everytime I see it, it brings all those feelings back again. It is like a spring tonic — medicine that brings me up whenever I am feeling dark and cold.
.
.
.
.
“Red Lotus” is a vibrant and dynamic painting that commands attention with its rich palette of red, orange, and white hues. The canvas is alive with a sense of organic upward movement, evoking the graceful ascent of a lotus flower reaching towards the sun.
The upward movement in the painting gives a sense of unfolding, like petals reaching for the light. Delicate curves and graceful swirls create a sense of natural growth and expansion, as the flower reaches to grow and evolve, so does the human spirit. The overall composition suggests a harmonious balance between dynamism and tranquility, making “Red Lotus” a visually striking and emotionally evocative piece.
.
.
.
.
Beyond every living thing, behind the veil of every physical manifestion, is an abstract form – a soul an energy, a truer truth. Sometimes, when we reach out with intuition instead of phsyical senses, we can start to see and feel behind the veil – we can perceive beyond Plato’s shadows into the higher truth of forms…if we (metaphorically!) look out the back of our heads…. This piece is an attempt to do that, and in my mind it represents the beautiful song of souls living, expressing their true selves and reaching, stretching, growing together towards the light.
Selected for Juried Exhibition “Abstractum”, Budapest, 9-30 March 2024
.
.
.
.
I don’t have a title for this piece, and it took me a while to figure out what it is. When I first finished it, the shape and colours looked so familiar, I was sure I had seen it before, but could not remember where. Then, one day while doing morning yoga I realised, a lightbulb moment — this is the shape my body and spirit make when I am dancing free form, stretching out and moving my arms and body in a way that flows with the music. When I make these movements in front of the window, with the sun on my face, these are the shapes and colours that move behind my closed eyelids.
.
.
.
.
This piece is about the resilience and inner strength that develops as we face challenges and difficulties in life – the combination of fragility with structure, to be able to stand tall, containing all the complexities, details, traumas, and still reach for the sky – to be strong while still being true, while still embracing weakness, this is what resilience means to me.
Enamel paint has an extraordinary capacity for change, and while drying, the molecules interact in ways that are not entirely controllable. I love how, when I paint with enamels, there is a dance between intent, intuition and the total random element of the will of the material itself. It feels like things greater than I are revealing themselves, like there are “other hands” working on the painting while I sleep.
.
.
.
.
I love this painting. Its hard to describe in words what it means to me… It’s about with teaching and learning – the relationship between mentor and mentored. The open infinite window in the center of the mentor figure beckons “come, dive in, grow, learn, evolve – you will still be you and there is wonder and amazement and connection and belonging on the other side. You are ready sweet thing, you can do it…come…”. And the soft ever so light angling of the box of the mentored up towards the teacher seems to be saying “really? me? Can I come?” I see a lot of my sister in this painting, the things I have learned from her and still do. It is a loving beckoning to grow into your full potential.
.
.
.
.
Arise is a part of a recent series where, using experimental techniques with enamel paints, I create a kind of dance between intention and intuition and the images that this combination brings back always bring me new perspective and deeper understanding.
In this case, the sinuous curves are absolutely feminine and the sense of the elements stretching, interweaving and reaching upwards gives me a sensation of feminine strength and growth – evolving with acceptance of one’s self and celebration of the beauty and strength inherent in woman.
.
.
.
.
With this piece I felt drawn back to more figurative work. It started as a self-portrait, but what i learned about myself while painting this has a more universal resonance, i think. Although she is timid, maybe a bit sad, and certainly facing challenges, complexity and confusion, she shows determination, resilience and strength. She will keep going, taking the next step forward and facing her challenges with grace. We all face challenges, trauma and sadness and this marks us – but it also forms us, gives us an opportunity to learn and to grow. So while I was first a bit worried (I am really so sad?), I realised that in this self-portrait I have painted not the sadness, but the strength and wisdom to pass through sadness to the other side.
.
.
.
.
Full of energy and vitality, this piece evokes the excitement and joy that the comes with new creation – whether it be new conceptual creativity or actual physical fertilisation. It is about the dawn of new ideas (varied creative impulses gathering momentum to rush together into a newly formed vision) and at the same time it is about the beginning of the universe and the dawn of new life (particles and elements rushing together to unite in a big bang or to fertilise an egg). In my mind, these two, both the material/natural and the creative/conceptual, are the same energy. When we are immersed in that joy and flow of creative energy, we are communing with God and experiencing in ourselves the energy of the creation of the universe itself.
Exhibited at “Art Beyond Borders”, Milan, December 2023
.
.
