This is part of the 'Be Close' series, created from people’s shared moments of intimacy and connection.
I start with a photograph, my eyes trace the contours and curves in a pursuit to find shapes within, while my pencil records. This is both an iteration and interpretation, abstracting and merging. I leave behind the photograph and continue the process. Working from this sketch I start to paint these shapes, now my focus is purely on texture and colour. I am playful with texture, allowing the paint to dictate, adding lots of turps I watch the paint flow, splattering paint it falls freely, large brushes I energetically stroke across the canvas. My attention now turns to colour, in an intuitive process I mix and place colours next to each other as I slowly fill in the shapes predetermined by my sketch.