“I begin without complete control. Something happens that I didn’t entirely make. Then, I look into it and discover rather than impose the image. I participate in the emergence of something I couldn’t have completely conceived beforehand. I enter the mystery.
I’m painting places where the human encounters something beyond itself: a meeting place between the visible world and what lies beyond it. I offer the person who buys the painting an opportunity to do the same.”
I am a professional artist with five decades of practice, now bringing together a lifetime of artistic development with intuition, mysticism, and the feminine principle. My paintings explore identity, transformation and the mysterious relationship between the physical and spiritual. I work intuitively with crystalline pigments, allowing chance and intention to meet in the process of discovering each image.
I am drawn to the divine feminine, not as an idealised image of womanhood, but as an intangible presence that cannot be entirely contained within any human form.
I work on canvas using crystalline dry ink pigments, sometimes with touches of gouache or acrylic. I begin by scattering the dry pigments across the canvas and allowing rain and water to transform them. Once they have dried, I respond to the shapes, colours and textures that have emerged.
This process creates a dialogue between chance and intention, control and surrender. I cannot completely determine what will appear and I value the unexpected discoveries that emerge from that uncertainty. The materials become part of the conversation.
I am not trying to provide answers. Rather, I am searching through the physical world for something beyond it.
I trust that my paintings will find people who recognise something of and for themselves; experience an emotion, awaken a memory or sense the possibility of something beyond the visible.
About crystalline pigments
Crystalline pigments make the surface of my paintings intentionally alive and delicate. My distinctive dry pigment process is unique, creating a deliberately unconventional, materially sensitive artwork. Crystalline pigments are not merely my choice of paint, they are part of my artistic language.
Crystalline pigments are transparent, highly pigmented watercolour inks in the form of a dry, crystalline powder. The colours are vibrant and they have a responsive and playful relationship with water. They are nearly impossible to control, one must go with the flow and working with them is all about surrendering.
The resulting paintings are expressive and unpredictable with a subtle delicacy about them. Vulnerability is an integral part of my artwork’s identity. Vulnerability and the abandonment of control is closely related to the subject matter.
Despite their delicacy, crystalline pigments are archival quality paints.
The powders contain no animal ingredients or by-products, they are non-toxic and not tested on animals.
I also paint with gouache, which is an opaque watercolour paint. Gouache gives me strong, bright colours and the ability to paint with detail and precision. Gouache and crystalline pigments are beautifully compatible.
