Figures as Testimony

The figures in these paintings are not intended as straightforward portraits. They emerge through colour, distortion and gesture, carrying emotional states that are often difficult to name directly.

Human and animal presences appear as witnesses, companions and fragments of memory. Their bodies may be distorted, partially obscured or built through thick layers of paint. This is not about hiding the figure; it is about allowing it to hold uncertainty, vulnerability and resistance at the same time.

I am interested in the way a body can carry history without explaining it. A face, a gesture, an animal's gaze or a field of colour can suggest a feeling before it becomes language. The figures are often suspended between intimacy and distance. They are seen, but they do not fully give themselves away.

Painting becomes a space where these presences can remain unresolved. The surface is built through instinctive marks and colour decisions, allowing forms to change as the work develops. I do not begin with a fixed image of what the figure should become. Instead, it emerges slowly through the act of painting.

These works consider what it means to be visible, to be remembered, and to carry emotional weight in the body. The figure becomes a site where private feeling and wider histories can meet.