Series - SPELL

This series was prompted by a challenge to explore what I love.

Listening to the BBC podcast ‘Witch‘ reminded me of the excitement I feel at the idea of spells. I began to resesarch what specifically interested me and came up with the words ‘magical’ and ‘sensual ‘ as qualities I wanted to capture.

I painted slowly, with the ritual and intuition that a spell might be assembled. Forms, patterns and symbols are gathered like components of a spell. The cake is a symbol of both the layers of reality and a physical object radiant with imaginary value.

Paint is layered thickly and glazes build up a rich patina. It is manipulated to create patterns and drips that suggest solids dissolving into liquids and minerals dissolving into tinctures. There are splashes of lilac, symbols carved and layers beneath to hint at the magical beyond the surface.

Pink, especially this fluorescent pink, represents the kind of excitement experienced as a child with new stationary or little trinkets and so these paintings to me ease the decal off that memory and transfer it to the excitement of spells - of the creative possibilities, mysterious equipment and ritual handling.