My work is largely connected and interwoven in the pursuit for creativity, through my studio practice this year, in exploring colour first, then line and eventually form and in my research into process-oriented methodology.

I began my MA by contemplating why I was drawn back to mark making after a long hiatus. I started by considering the fundamentals of 2-dimensional art, colour and form. I dove into colour by eliminating form from my work and experimented with various techniques: watercolour, oil, acrylic, textiles, printmaking and I researched colour theories and colour in contemporary art. I picked up pastels and found that the pure pigment lent itself to the exploration of colour, which I was able to experiment with on a larger scale.

Through this development, along with others, I started to find out what interested me about making art and one of the responses that arose was simply: do it, make, be in the process. I began deconstructing my process of mark making through the process itself, the more I created the more I learned about my practice and the importance of ‘process painting.’ There is some intangible element of creative unknowing that is compelling when embarking on an improvisational piece of art. I work predominantly with this improvisational methodology where the materials lead the way, and my work slowly transforms over time and as the materials change.

More recently in my practice, I have been rediscovering line. After having explored colour for some time I intuitively fell upon the importance of line and particularly the circular form. As I worked with this circular form for a while the line slowly changed, naturally breathing into space and off the page, then widening and straightening. It was as if after my break from art, I needed to first consider the foundations of colour, and then to investigate one of the fundamental forms of line: circles.

Recently I have started a watercolour series in order to digest current news articles, be it about migration, poverty, drugs, politics, racial crimes or child labour. A question arose for me while considering the function of line, can I transform this line into another form, can it depict something personal or incorporate something bigger? What if the beauty of colour and form were to transcribe something tragic, would it help a viewer re-consider that subject? Activism is to go against the societal grain and bring up critical questions. So this is my quiet protest, currently evolving in the studio.

The creative process is interwoven with the projects and interlaced with the substantiality of the artist. My artistic practice is still developing, moving onward towards new prospects. Structure holds it in place, with the exploration of new techniques and further development of known ones, but it is the freedom that holds my interest, the freedom to improvise and the investigation into the process of painting and creativity.