Artist Statement

My work is primarily based on painting, focusing on abstraction, texture, and composition. Across my work, I look at how colour, brushwork, and layered marks can communicate emotion and atmosphere, rather than relying on detailed representation. I also occasionally experiment with clay to further develop some of my initial ideas. My ideas often stem from personal interests and experiences, particularly music, and develop through experimentation.

Music has been a consistent influence throughout my work in both semesters. In Semester 1, my exhibition piece, Untitled (Pink and Blue), can be seen to have rhythm due to repeating patterns, colour choices, and technique. In my collider project, I explored my interest in 80s music combined with cats, using the Walkman as a visual reference to connect sound with colour, and atmosphere. This idea developed further in my exhibition work, where I explored the concept of water reacting to sound. I became interested in how I can reflect the feeling of music into painting, focusing on rhythm, movement, and repetition. In my Semester 2 exhibition piece, I listened to specific albums or genres of music to create an atmosphere that reflects how music feels to me, rather than representing it literally through instruments or musical notes, which were my initial ideas.

My exhibition piece, Tides, developed from this exploration. The work was inspired by sound vibrations and the physical response of water to audio frequencies. I was influenced by 80s music, particularly the colours I associate with it and its nostalgic tone. The piece was painted across six cardboard canvases, which allowed me to explore repetition and rhythm across the surface, similar to visual beats in music. Working in sections also gave me the ability to connect each part while making adjustments to each canvas.

During the process of painting this piece, I listened to the album (((((ultraSOUND))))) by The Neighbourhood, where the album cover also influenced the idea of sound interacting with water. The album gives off a dark, cinematic and atmospheric mood, which helped shape the colour palette and circular movement within the painting. My brushwork was also influenced by Lee Ufan, particularly his piece From Line (1978), where repeated gestures and fading paint marks encouraged me to think more about simplicity and rhythm of the brushwork in a piece.

Following feedback from Semester 1, I have made a conscious effort to engage with more contemporary galleries and exhibitions, including Tate Modern and the National Portrait Gallery, which have helped inform my approach to current painting practice. I also visited the National Gallery, where looking at historical paintings helped me consider how traditional approaches to tone and composition still inform my own painting practice.

During these visits, I looked at a range of artists, including Cildo Meireles, Georges Braque, Lucian Freud, and Tracey Emin. Freud's work in particular influenced my thinking around texture, tone, and brushwork in portraits. I was interested in how his use of paint creates a strong presence through layering, where detail is sometimes suggested through thick brushstrokes rather than precise lines. Tracey Emin's work also stood out for its emotional and expressive painting style, reinforcing my interest in using painting as a way of communicating feeling, and showing that precise detail is not always necessary.

In addition, attending an artist talk by Jon Lockhart helped me think more about installation, experimentation, and audience interaction. His approach to combining objects, digital processes, and sound made me consider how artworks can extend beyond traditional painting and become more immersive. One exhibition piece he spoke about, Together in Electric Dreams, further developed my interest in how sound, systems, and experience can be transformed into visual or spatial form.

Overall, my practice explores how emotion and atmosphere can be communicated through painting, using music as a starting point for visual abstraction. I am interested in developing this further by continuing to experiment with colour, texture, and rhythm, and by exploring how personal experience can be translated into artworks. Moving forward, I want to push this further by experimenting with the relationship between sound and image and developing more ambitious compositions that strengthen the idea of immersion and atmosphere within my work.