The Stages Of Change - Abstract Painting Series

Stages of Change

Stages of Change began very differently to how I would normally approach a painting. There is often a touch of fear, doubt and uncertainty.

Rather than working slowly on one piece at a time, I started all six paintings simultaneously. They developed alongside each other with layers shifting, erased and rebuilt over a relatively short period of time. Working this way created a momentum that felt instinctive and less controlled. There was less time to overthink individual decisions and more trust placed in movement, reaction and process. There was much more freedom.

I found myself moving continuously between the paintings, allowing marks, colours and composition to echo across the series naturally. Some works became calmer and simpler, some more turbulent and dark. Certain surfaces seemed to resist my efforts while others pleased me quickly. Together, they began to feel less like six separate paintings and more like pieces of the same experience and moment in time.

One of the things I have enjoyed most about showing the work has been seeing how different people interpret not only the paintings themselves, but also how they should exist together in space. Rearranging the works creates entirely different conversations between them. Some viewers lean towards symmetry and calm, while others prefer tension, imbalance or contrast. There is no single correct arrangement, and that openness feels important to the work.

This is one of the reasons I continue to return to abstraction.

Abstract painting leaves the door open. It allows space for ambiguity, intuition and personal interpretation. I have never been particularly interested in dictating a fixed meaning or narrative within my work. In fact, some of the questions I avoid answering most are “what is it about?” or “what is it meant to be?”

I am far more interested in what emerges between the painting and the viewer — the associations, memories, emotions or atmospheres that emerge for each person being with the work.

For me, abstraction is not about obscuring meaning. It is about allowing meaning to remain fluid.