Acrylic on Canvas

04/2014

This artwork acknowledges how a particular fragment of time, where lighting and composition fall perfectly into place can form a beautiful visual image. I found this image while I was walking in the Winter Fish Market in North Hamburg, Germany. It captures a flock of birds hovering above the sea. This painting represents a memorable moment for me and I feel that I have successfully recreated the mood and atmosphere that were present.

Compressed Charcoal

12/2013

This charcoal portrait was inspired by South Korean artist KwangHo Shin who uses curves and smudges to express human feeling with only the eyes being clearly visible.  I found it an intersting challenge to capture  emotion and personality in a portrait and  I discovered how important the eyes are in expressing this. The eyes serve not only as a focal point but also as a source of knowledge and understanding, they are the windows to the soul.

I see free movement and life that consists of “loose but purposful style which fulfilled the criteria of portrait proportions giving a pleasing result.” to quote my interviewed artist, Joseph Freidin. To me that is true artistic beauty.

I developed a mindset of adaptability to people’s obvious differences having grown up as part of two cultures. I became fascinated by how beauty and light could be found in the most unexpected and unusual ways. The course allowed me to develop new techniques through experimentation and the exploration of my theme, which continued to be the presence of light and beauty.

Light is a powerful presence in my work and during visits to the Musee d’Orsay in Paris, the Kunsthalle in Hamburg and the Gallery of SA in Adelaide I was particularly drawn to those artists who are masters of the use of light.  I was fascinated by Van Gogh’s “Starry night over the Rhone” in the way in which he used light as the focus of the work. M. J. Turner’s “Moonlight, a study at Millbank” impressed me by the artists’ skill in the intense recreation of light to emote feelings and drama. Jackson Pollock inspired my love of using bright, bold colours with a freedom of application that suggests movement and life.

My collection seemed to evolve as I experimented with different techniques and mediums. I anticipated to make visual impacts with mediums I felt confident in and in most cases I achieved this. I experimented with unfamiliar mediums such as slow exposure photography, Photoshop, dark room photography or a combination of one of these with conventional mediums but the outcome was less predictable.

In many of my works, life, light and movement reflect the beauty that I admire in various cultures from around the world. Whether I was portraying the slums of India on an old wooden palette or the extravagant luxury of iconic wealth, I told a story of a moment in life where beauty can appear at any time or place.