Transformation in Real Time

Transformation is a pair of mixed-media canvases exploring movement, instinct and change through layered colour, texture and symbolism.

The works began in early 2025 with fragments of patterned gift wrap applied to bare canvas, interrupted by flashes of bright pink spray paint. I worked intuitively at first — building surfaces with copper, green and black inks, allowing marks to overlap and shift freely — until I reached a familiar standstill.

At the time, I found myself caught between two approaches, both creatively and personally. One path leaned towards structure and certainty: refining details, searching for references and trying to control the outcome. The other invited something looser and less predictable; allowing the paintings to unfold through movement, instinct and experimentation.

That tension mirrored my life outside the studio. I was questioning whether to continue investing in a more conventional future — stable, sensible and financially secure — or lean further into creative uncertainty and the possibility of building a life shaped more by curiosity than expectation.

For months, the canvases remained unfinished. While life around me shifted in uncomfortable ways, the paintings sat untouched against the wall, reflecting that same sense of pause and frustration.

Eventually, I returned to them with a wide brush loaded with white paint. I began sweeping light across both surfaces simultaneously, building movement between the canvases until forms started to emerge naturally through the layers. In the lower right corner of the second canvas, the composition finally opened up; the direction I had been waiting for revealed itself through the process rather than planning.

Butterflies have appeared throughout my work during periods of transition, both literally and abstractly. For these pieces, I introduced species inspired by those I often see in Manor House Park, particularly small white butterflies moving through the landscape in fleeting, unpredictable patterns. Some forms remain sharp and detailed, while others dissolve into the surface, reflecting shifting states of clarity, uncertainty and personal change.

Towards the final stages of the paintings, I introduced touches of gold leaf to capture the feeling of fleeting moments of presence — brief pauses where everything feels illuminated before moving forward again. Each canvas was completed with a soft satin glaze, preserving the layered textures and movement beneath the surface.

Together, the works explore transformation not as a clean or perfect rebirth, but as an ongoing process of tension, release and rediscovery. The making of the paintings became inseparable from their meaning; a record of uncertainty, instinct and the gradual emergence of something more honest.

25cm x 20cm x 1.7cm

220g

For sale here