Artist Statement

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I am interested in enchantment, making large scale paintings of windows informed by Jane Bennett’s definition of this as “to be struck and shaken by the extraordinary that lives amid the familiar and the everyday”.  The scale of the work aims to immerse the viewer and heighten the sense of atmosphere, which is also created through my exploration of how the transformative power of light can create these moments of enchantment. By depicting windows which are distorted or partially blocked, I hope to put the focus on the diffused light coming through, rather than the view of what is outside it.

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Each painting’s imagery comes from a place in which I have experienced this unexpected feeling of enchantment, often being in spaces such as public bathrooms or waiting rooms. After taking snapshot photographs of these moments, I translate them into large scale paintings. I am interested in this ‘stretching out’ of time from something ephemeral and fleeting through lavishing time into a painting. This is done by building up thin layers of glaze, allowing light to reflect back through the paint to represent the glowing quality which I am drawn to. I also aim to push the contrast between areas of tight, neater painting and loose, more painterly mark-making, as I am interested in how these looser marks can capture the window surfaces and distortions.