Watercolours: Coming Alive / Domestic Constructions

Displayed on this page are two series of small-scale paintings on which I have been working throughout 2020. The first series, entitled 'Coming Alive', depicts various glowing scenes encountered during the summer lockdown, while, the second, entitled 'Domestic Constructions', comprises abstractions based on the internal architecture of my home. Each of these paintings is composed predominantly of watercolours on recycled khadi paper, with varying surface qualities created by touches of gesso, gloss gel, iridescent medium, metallic leaf and additional gum arabic. These bodies of work emanated from experiences with the sublime in the everyday, whereby I was particularly drawn to phenomena in which private and public, and interior and exterior, collided, resulting in a fusion of personal, domestic space and the outside world to which we are only permitted limited access. By recreating and abstracting these ephemeral moments when something previously overlooked seems to be coming alive, painting offered me a means of escape from the quotidian nature of lockdown.