A Bridge Between Paintings…

No Words

Oil on canvas
2026
90 × 120 cm

Some paintings announce themselves straight away. Others only reveal their importance once you've stepped away from them.

No Words was never meant to be a finished painting. It began as a spare canvas (Seventh to be exact) while I was working on the Totems for Inner Worlds, an extra painting in case one of the others didn't make it to the exhibition. Yes I was that prepared! lol!

As I worked through the series, something began to shift. Each painting became looser than the last. I found myself worrying less about control and becoming more interested in following instinct. Looking back, I can see that I was warming up, not just to the paintings themselves, but to a different way of working.

When I returned to this canvas, I intended to paint over it completely. That had become part of my process. I would knock paintings back, scrape into them and begin again.

Then, halfway through, I stopped.

I drew a line across the face and couldn't bring myself to go any further. I didn't know why at the time, but I knew the painting needed to stay exactly where it was.

Looking back now, No Words feels like a turning point. It sits somewhere between the Totems and the self portraits that followed. I didn't plan that. I only recognised it afterwards.

The more I paint, the more I realise I'm often working through my own experiences without fully understanding them in the moment. Sometimes the paintings seem to know something before I do. It can take weeks, or even months, before I understand why I made certain decisions.

The title came later. There were things I couldn't explain in words, but somehow they had already found their way into the painting.

Perhaps that's why this work became No Words.

Exhibition update

No Words is currently on display at Moseley Hall Hospital as part of an exhibition with the In Full Flow Collective.