Up to Now
Drawing and painting have always been an important part of my life since I was little when my first love was horses. I progressed from observing and depicting things and animals (mostly horses) as they appear, to adding studies of human form (portraits and nudes), and using bold colours to create a new atmosphere: a new story around the subject matter. The use of colours led me to experiment with abstraction – from shapes to no form at all where the colour was the main narrative. I was curious to see if I could still create a sense of a story without an actual subject matter; whether the paintings could tap into some universal experiences.
The next area for experimentation became my environment: views from windows, landscapes, sea-scapes. What is just a view, a mere scene of every day life that surrounds us, becomes much more by extracting it and restricting it within the shape of the canvas. It becomes a still moment; a new moment. New, yet familiar. By being reminiscent of what we know it draws us in to experience a new emotional reality.
The ideas for my paintings come to me after seeing something interesting, important/political and/or beautiful which offers a potential for transformation (not all beautiful things do) and I feel the need to capture it. Or the ideas come to me in the half-awake state or a dream.
The image I originally see in my mind tends to change during the process of painting where the ideas get to be shaped by size, composition, medium, colours etc. and the essence of the idea evolves into a new image.