Oil on Linen | 2022 | 58x42inch / 147x106cm
Swimming - Oil on hand stretched Italian Linen 2022 | Signed on the reverse. Stretched, Unframed. Painted edges. Ready to Hang.
Swimming is from my translations series, these are paintings I made on my return to the UK after 8 years living and painting in Belgrade, Serbia.
I returned not only to my home country but to my hometown, 8 years away from one and 22 years away from the other. The experience was intense, the noise of life was very loud, suddenly I was surrounded by familiar voices, and the loudness of understanding and reconnecting to this place I was from.
This new/old experience of being overwhelmed by the world took me up and it was hard to feel peaceful. Don't get me wrong, I was excited to be back but I was not yet home.
Then in September 2022 I found a place where I could swim outside, a spring fed lake that two of my friends would swim in regularly. In Belgrade my favourite place was Lake Ada, a man made lake fed by the water of the Sava River, I would cycle there in the summer mornings to swim before going to the studio.
The lake in the UK was not available when I was living here before and discovering I could go there to swim was so exciting, I have alway loved being in or near to bodies of water.
One morning in October I met my friends at the lake to swim. The sun was shining
As I stepped into the water, the energy surged through me as the cold enveloped my skin.
I pushed out into the deep blue green body of the lake, moving, breathing, listening and feeling.
The light danced across the surface and my eyes were so close to the water, seeing shadows and sunlight and the fast wings of dragonflies.
Vobster Lake | ,Somerset , UK
I was swimming in the reflections of nature, fully immersed in the water and so alive. This was what I had been longing for in the years living in cities, this proximity and absorption into nature, this is where my heart swam, I realised I was home.
In The Studio
Swimming is created in layers of transparent glazes that are built up to give the painting depth and movement. Opaque forms flow in and out of each other in an endless shifting landscape of colour.
The deep blues and greens give this painting a slightly otherworldly feel, a deep lagoon in the sunshine.
I wanted to capture the depth of the water and the sense of weightlessness, the silky feeling of water on your skin and the beauty of nature reflected in the surface of a lake.
The painting wraps around the edges of the canvas, I like to think that the whole painting is an artwork.
I hand stretch the canvas myself and enjoy the process of building the frames and then building the layers of paint and the subtle stories that come up in my mind as I work.
Each painting changes me in some fundamental way, the marks and the colours are written into my narrative too. I hope that my paintings continue to grow beyond me as they settle into new environments and bring out other narrative in the people who spend time with them.
Swimming is available to purchase and will be carefully wrapped and shipped directly from the studio with a certificate of Authenticity and a note of thanks from me! I love this painting and know it will bring a sense of wonder and depth to any space it resides in.
If you are interested in purchasing this original oil painting the details are below.