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by Helena Clews

My practice explores the possibilities of painting in the liminal space between abstraction and representation. I am constantly intrigued by how visual information - such as colour and gestural mark making - can allude to something that is difficult to define or identify clearly as a particular thing in the world, whilst at the same time being recognisable aesthetically as an ‘abstract’ painting. 
 
 
Recently I have been working with natural objects - such as shells - alongside collages made from found images. I produce composition studies from these familiar objects or collages which then become the starting point for my paintings. My paintings emerge from the development of material processes: I pay close attention to the ever-changing possibilities that the fluid medium of paint offers in the moment of being worked and manipulated. But the paintings are also affected by my intuitive responses to the specific objects and collages I use as their starting point.