The nude is not an original subject to paint. For centuries, it has occupied a central place in art history, carrying changing and challenging ideas about beauty, identity, sexuality and the body and reflecting the cultural, social and political moments in which it was made. I approach the nude with reverence for the drama of the form, drawn particularly to folds of flesh, twisted limbs and unexpected arrangements of the body.  I am interested in poses where the face recedes, and the body turns away, moving the work from portraiture and towards an exploration of the body itself — its weight, its structure and its presence.

Working from life, photography and life drawings, I construct the figure through instinctive colour and visible, gestural brushwork. Unexpected colour describes and disrupts the body, while imagined backgrounds of inky darkness, blue, green and grey deliberately move away from the reality of the original setting into a timeless space.

I am interested in the tension between exposure and withdrawal. These bodies are present but rarely perform for the viewer. They are anonymous yet intensely physical; exposed yet withheld. Through painting, I want to create space for the nude to be contemplated rather than consumed.

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Join us at Side Gallery on Thursday, 19 November, 6 – 8 pm for the opening event. 

Artist talk: 4 pm