presence, 2019

My practice as a contemporary abstract painter is informed by ideologies intrinsic to the Slow Art movement within contemporary slow cultures. These include mindfulness and conscious presence when engaging with a subject. I consider the purpose and process of the artist in expressing this liminal space.

The series of paintings in Presencefocus on natural environments as sites to record the affect experienced in slowing down and registering the sensations therein. The work generates its meaning from these recorded experiences. Each painting is suspended in a liminal space, seeking out visual language to describe the zones between being (in a place) and feeling (experiencing that place).

By exploring techniques of observation and recording, then developing a methodology of painting in layers over time, employing erasure and addition, veiling and repetitive mark-making, I replicate my understanding of being present in a place and time. In this way my work promotes a study of the reception and generation of affect experienced by being in nature.