My work aims to depict the relationship between body language, and how it conveys visceral, emotional states of being through gouache life drawings.
My practice uses gouache to visually convey my experience of living with Borderline Personality Disorder and its treatment, exploring how emotional vulnerability impacts the physical self. My chosen medium was a mixture of gouache, watercolour pencils and water-soluble pastels on cold-pressed watercolour and mixed media paper.
I aimed to maintain a visual balance between selective, precise lines and unpredictable marks of blooming colours throughout the pieces. My goal was to express the weight and tension of these lethargic and psychologically charged poses by allowing the paint to bleed and wash over the paper. The use of an unstable medium allowed me to alternate between painting with exact control and letting go to allow spontaneous elements to affect the work.
My studio practice consists of a variety of paintings which range from blurry to defined. I wanted to study the outcomes of both, to discover the middle ground. I took note of which types of lines and marks that, even by themselves, help show vulnerability and a sense of fatigue in the subject of my paintings.
