UNSTILL LIFE
My painting practice forms as a way of gently unpicking assumptions about the way we see and think about the world. In exploring the tenuous state of human disturbances during the Anthropocene, each work sits in a place between benign and malign, beautiful and grotesque, while dissolving the borders between fantasy and reality. The geological and botanical lexicons of the subject matter spawn figurative otherworldly forms, inviting the viewer into a world where all is not as it seems.
While the work draws on languages derived from still-life flower painting, it seeks to redefine those traditions through a contemporary vernacular, arising as a juxtaposition of the traditional with the unconventional. By imbuing quirky botanical forms with an energy that speaks to the essence of fecundity, the subject matter acts as a vehicle for talking about growth, movement and change in the natural world. Although each painting pays homage to the traditions of still life painting, it seeks to escape the confines of being ‘known’ and seeks to capture and convey a sense of vital energy as an ‘unstill life.’
This notion of perpetual, but almost imperceptible growth, is communicated through a vocabulary of mark-making that is both atmospheric and figurative, culminating in a meta-language that embodies an intuitive approach to painting.
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