Princess of the Riverina

My painting practice is engaged with pictorial illusion through abstraction. I work with layering acrylic and oil paints to build up complex colour fields, overlapping linear marks that gather to create form. Line and edge become an important means of exploring surface, space and movement. I am particularly interested in using colour and light to create luminosity. I have developed a technique that incorporates layering paint glazes, which references printmaking and the use of pure colour printing. This method is also influenced by an interest in how light activates colour and our perception. Further to this, I am interested in the physical interaction of surface and paint application. The physicality of my work is also temporal in that the work is built up over time. What appears to be an active and dynamic image on first glance through contemplation reveals a more complex engagement with pictorial space as a slow release. The title of this most recent body of work, The Princess of the Riverina, like previous exhibition titles Lashings of Ginger Beer and The Informalities of Shit Miracle refer to nicknames given to me by loved ones. Riverina for the area where I grew up, Ginger for my red hair, and Shit Miracle as a take on my can-do attitude. These titles link my abstract paintings inextricably and unashamedly to myself, and the presence of my own body in the work.