Beyond the Horizon
Oil on Canvas, 180 x 125 cm, 2024
Beyond the Horizon is a self-portrait that holds many layers of emotional depth, emerging into itself each layer records feeling into form, capturing shifting experiences that build upon each other, almost acting like a diary entry that is written over, edited, and rewritten to then draw back to an instinctive beginning of what has always been its becoming.
An abstraction drenched in a fiery yellow layered above deep greens, blue, and black, gesturally captures an emotionally charged and turbulent period. The colours chaotically disperse around the faces at the chest of this self-portrait, the inner selves that are neither good nor bad, but both. The in-between that holds space amongst chaos and harmony. It becomes the composer of this emotional symphony, something that I poured out into this painting to find a place where I could ground myself again.
The Final layer emerges as a self-portrait with eyes that look out beyond the surface. Painted with sky blue, purple, green, and white, this self-portrait is the real me, a raw expression of my vulnerability. This raw, layered mark-making and symbolic presence within the faces makes me reminiscent of Jean-Michel Basquiat, whos work reveals multiple states of being within a single figure. The emerging process through gesture and instinct remind me of Cecily Brown where figuration and abstraction exist simultaneously. Colour plays a central role within this work and like Edvard Munch I use colour as a physchological force rather than a descriptive tool.
Through intuitive layering and expressive mark-making, the painting becomes an exploration of identity as something complex and multifaceted.It reflects the tension between strength and sensitivity, visibility and concealment. Beyond the Horizon invites the viewer to look beyond the surface, to recognise the presence of what lies beneath, and to consider the self not as singular, but as a convergence of emotional layers, constantly shifting and unfolding.