The Ice of Winter Banishes Spring Print

As a child I used to lie in fields and watch the sky float over me, and find worlds of meaning in the colours and shapes of the clouds. I explored the land in all seasons, and sought for a form to express this spirit. This relationship and connection with landscape followed me into adulthood, and my work always relates back to these experiences. I want to find a paint equivalent, a synthesis for my many walks. Currently I am working on a series of paintings which sometimes refer to waterfalls and rivers with evolving thoughts on passages through life experiences. Other times I travel through the various suggestions of places that appear from marks of colour as I work.I am taking my interest in calligraphy, abstraction, colour and suggestions of figuration towards exploring my personal thoughts about the passage of life and my sense of myself in relation to landscape. At times figures emerge in the work. When I was 12 I began to study Chinese watercolours, especially landscapes and animal paintings that had been rendered with simple, expressive brushstrokes. It has always been natural for me to paint with colour rather than draw something then fill it in with colour. I follow the life of the brushstroke and painted marks and they suggest worlds which sometimes echo my experiences or suggest further ideas to explore. My trip in 2015 to China (for the 6th Beijing International Art Biennale) was exciting because it affirmed my growing direction and interest in different types of brushstrokes. On my return to the UK I began a series of ink paintings on rice paper, with Chinese calligraphy brushes (materials bought in Beijing), and the new elements that have emerged have now seeped into my works on canvas. (Ink paintings on rice paper series can be viewed on my website.) In 2016 I completed a painting Fellowship in China (for the month of August, at Mutianyu, by the Great Wall) and this allowed me to continue to explore ink on rice paper, and brush strokes on a larger scale. I was born in Malta, lived in Nigeria as a child, and then in Cyprus from 1984 to 1998. My travels and journeys have influenced my colours and shapes, and how I view the world.I am driven by my need to paint, and my evolving ideas about colour and gestural painted marks. My paintings seek for a form and composition that expresses my inner world,and to create a synthesis between inscapes and landscapes expressed by different kinds of marks and brushstrokes. .