Between Stillness and Motion
An ongoing series of paintings rooted in memory, colour, and the quiet moments that carry more weight than we notice at the time.
where it all began
This series began as a trip down memory lane. The vision came to life while cycling from my office to home, a short fifteen minute commute, on a warm day in June.
As always, the route runs along a bright green corridor of varying trees, bramble bushes, and perennials, light finding its way through the tree tops and creating a symphony of light and shadow. The feeling I get while
cycling here is one of wonder and joy. I found myself asking, how can I bring this feeling of joy into my art, but also, what are the other moments that give me an intense sense of satisfaction, gratitude, and joy. The question stayed with me quietly for a while, and it was only after the tenth painting that I noticed what I had actually been painting all along, moments and memories of summer that carry that same feeling of joy.
The title, Between Stillness and Motion, speaks to the feeling I want to hold within the work. It invites a pause, a moment of stillness, while the motion lives in the paint itself, swirling like a memory across the canvas. It is there. You can feel it. It draws you in.
Though rooted in my own experience, these paintings reach for something universal, the small, recognisable moments that can light up a day in an instant. A delicious meal, a favourite street on a bike ride, a view that makes your heart lift. The series continues to grow with each season it moves through, carrying that same instinct forward.
Each painting is made with heavily diluted acrylic and ink on raw, or only lightly primed, cotton canvas. Left unprotected, the canvas absorbs pigment much like paper takes watercolour, slowly, unevenly, with a life of its own. I rarely know exactly how a wash will settle until the following day, once it's dry. That uncertainty is part of the process I return to again and again.
