A Place Unknown Print

I am a painter based in Cardiff that graduated from Cardiff School of Art and Design in 2019 with a first-class degree. Through paint I attempt to create an original visual language, to open up a refreshing and sentient perspective of the natural landscape of St Ives, Cornwall. In reference to phenomenology, this is identifiable as an integrated or embodied experience. Phenomenology allows us to explore our relationship to the world using all our senses. Central to this is the argument that the body is a form of consciousness underpinning all action, Merleau-Ponty argues that “there is not in the normal subject a tactile experience and also a visual one, but an integrated experience to which it is impossible to gauge the contribution of each sense” (Merleau-Ponty: 1945). My practice considers phenomenological experience as a way to translate and visualise how I internalise and engage with the natural landscape. My practice is explorative and experimental as I attempt to challenge both my theoretical concepts and technical approaches to painting, to increase visual dynamic. My process is intuitive, working instinctively with no preconceived notion of the end image. With a basis in colour theory and aesthetics, I use colour in a playful manner as an extension of the landscape. Through integrated and complex layers of brush strokes, graphic line, colour blocks and repeat patterns, I aim to increase visual dynamic and depth, to create a pathway for visual exploration.