Artist Statement

My latest work plays with the idea of mixing colour, I have never been a colourist, I have always felt uncomfortable with colour. At art school, I was constantly told off for "muddying" or "dirtying" my paint, so I've always tried to be as clean as possible by using just one single colour, preferably black. But with my new series of works titled "Sludgegiggle" and "Dirtyscratchings" I wanted to play with this idea of "muddying" and make "sludge" paintings. Using thick paint I apply directly to the surface, mixing and scratching the paint together with a drawing pin. It's a long process, as the paint drys over the weeks I constantly scrape off the paint and reapply the same drying paint. Over time it becomes mudded with a play-doh consistency. By scratching into the thick paint some of the original colour comes through, giving the paint a sense of history and decay.

The paintings are often small and abstract, I like the intimacy of it. From a distance, it appears quiet, but up close it speaks with movement and texture within the crevices of paint. Repetitivity is constant in my work, early works were very laborious with small marks and shapes repeated over an area. Over time my work became more expressive with movement, using the subject of hair as a signifier, past works focus on concealment and suggestion, hinting at what could be lurking just out of sight. Now my work explores more abstract subject matter, its about the paint its self and what it hides/reveals beneath it.