I am an abstract painter and designer experimenting with color and mediums in order to explore the relationships between forms and the space they occupy.

I respond to, rather than control, watercolor’s fluidity, intensity of pigment, and dynamic properties. The bright and sometimes vivid hues in my watercolor work give way to a moodier palette in oil. Through oils, I have begun to experience a new sensuality in the lushness of the paint and the complexity of color I can develop.

My current work began as a rebellion to the distractions of information overload – finding a new way to maintain my relationship to myself, overlapping into my practice of deep listening.

Similarly to Leidy Churchman’s sentiment, “I started making art because I realized that that was where I could bring things to think about and work on – and be surprised. I could bring life there and work with it in a way that I couldn’t do anywhere else.”

My previous work began with intuitive gestures which gave way to organic shapes, emerging as aqueous, colloidal compositions. Through tension and harmonies in edge conditions and layers of paint, I watch and guide how forms relate responding to each other.

My current body of work is spatial in that it finds and defines space, via an abstracted ground that holds the memory of physical objects. I am working indirectly with an abstract alabaster sculpture, reminiscent of Barbara Hepworth’s work, which I finished in 2010. Its circular shape atop an angled stem has found its way into my paintings. These new architectural grounds within my paintings act as access points for the viewer.

A Brush of Dharma. Interview with Leidy Churchman by Anne Doran. Tricycle Magazine, Fall 2020.