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.