Watercolour on Gesso Panel
50 x 40cms

2022

My paintings create an uncanny space, enticing the viewer into a world poised between the real and the surreal, a world that is both tangible and illusory. Positioned centrally in my work, dolls are a recurring motif. I view them as explorations of self, a non-binary avatar aligned to my own personality, tastes, and memories. They offer a way for me to inhabit the painting both as the artist and subject.

Within the paintings there is a slippage, not only in the way that the watercolour resists the gesso panel, but also in the subjects. The colours are heightened and saturated, meticulously rendered to create a sense of unreality. The sources are intentionally perplexing, filtered through my own interpretation of the artist they draw inspiration from, such as the Surrealist, Marion Adnams in the painting The Giardini. The paintings might include a glimpse of an artwork, a collectable toy, or a chintzy ornament that offers a lure to distract from an underlying cognitive rupture. My paintings merge still life and the imagination, creating a self-contained subconscious world within a single painted plane, where there is room for exploration of an un-gendered liminal space.