Hi, it’s been a while! I feel like the past year of my creative career and professional practice has been on pause. I spent it living and working in Leeds where I took a year long break to think about what I wanted to do now after just finishing university, hence the radio silence on here. July 2022, I moved to Manchester and after only living here for 7 months I can confidently say that my creative career is starting to snowball and it’s incredibly exciting!
I’m currently working from my spare bedroom studio that resembles a scene from American Psycho thanks to the large plastic sheets I’ve got taped to the walls and floors. It’s not ideal but it works for now. If you followed me through my degree, you would know that I worked on large canvases that measured 5ft by 5ft; as I’m sure you can imagine, my spare bedroom doesn’t quite allow for that scale. It's been a challenge to try and translate my bold and gestural strokes onto a smaller canvas, but I’ve really enjoyed focusing my attention on capturing that vigor and movement that I loved so much and rendering it on to a smaller scale.
I welcomed the challenge and set to work and thus ‘Subsurface’ was born. Measuring 60cm x 60cm, this piece was built up over multiple sittings. Each layer and mark was carefully thought out and planned, I added each component in response to the previous in the hopes of creating interactions and conversation across the canvas. I’ve got ‘Subsurface is hanging up on my living room wall above my sofa and it really does bring me a lot of joy. I think it might be one of my favourites, and possibly most successful paintings in quite some time. I find it calming to look at; I enjoy revisiting the mental space I entered when painting it.
'Subsurface'. Acrylic on Canvas, 60x60cm. November 2022
Subsurface: of, relating to, or being something located beneath a surface and especially underground (Webster, Merriam)
At first glance this work might appear almost simplistic and that’s okay! Infact that was kind of what I was aiming for. I wanted to create complexity or rather depth with a minimalistic approach. The painting is built up of 4 obvious layers: light green background, gestural dark green strokes, the thin green glaze and then the thick orange and pink shapes. When creating a painting like this it can become difficult to know when to stop. Each layer I add must make sense; it must add something to the overall composition. Whilst there were a few experimental and unplanned marks within the work (the light green drips down the right side of the canvas for example), the rest of the marks were well thought out and placed with intent.
The challenge then comes when I want to paint with intent whilst also capturing spontaneity and movement. These two things completely go against one another, and I then run the risk of creating a painting that is stiff and lacks movement or energy.
I’ve been trying to work out why I paint abstract. Is it because I find comfort in the acceptance of the unknown or is it because I love getting lost in the process of layering and moving paint around a canvas? Either way abstract painting is idyllic.
Subsurface will be exhibited this weekend (Friday 10th-Sunday 12th March 2023) at The Village Hall, Deansgate Mews in Manchester as part of a group exhibition that will celebrate female identifying artists within the Manchester area. If you happen to be in Manchester, you should definitely pop in and take a look at all the amazing work on display.
I’ve got a few things planned for the coming months and I’m so excited to grow my creative career further. I’ve recently reduced my hours at the café I work at to accommodate the influx of creative workshops I’m now leading and assisting in. Community arts is something I’ve always wanted to get into, so to be able to now confidently introduce myself as a freelance creative who works within community arts is just utter madness to me!
This blog post is hopefully going to be the first of many. I figure if I start taking myself seriously as a creative then eventually, I will become a full time freelance creative!
Watch this space! Hopefully there will be plenty of exciting things to come...
Webster, Merrium. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/subsurface (Accessed 06-03-23)
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