Tryst, 2023
'I use lived experiences of nature and express them through paint, exploring light, texture, space and atmosphere. I draw on moments I’ve observed or remembered and use the palette drawn from my surroundings. The paint takes on a life of its own through chance accidents and gestural mark making, veering into abstraction. I work quickly and intuitively, creating a sense of movement while building layers. I love the unexpected moments. I never know how a finished painting will look and it is this journey that excites me.'
Mary West is a local Chiswick based artist who graduated from the Slade School of Fine Art in 2002. In subsequent years she has worked in collaboration with another artist creating large scale murals in private homes, corporate and hospitality spaces and as public art commissions. She has shown her work across countless exhibition and her pieces can be found in private collections in the UK, USA, Denmark, Hong Kong and Australia. Mary is a very sensual, physical painter, she feels her way around the canvas, her fingers being the tools she uses to make marks on the surface. The way her paintings veer between abstraction and figuration echoes the way our brains fill in the gaps of our memories, leaving us with a sense of not knowing whether something is real or if our eyes deceive us. As the seasons change so does Mary’s colour palette. As she gets lost in the very physical and almost hypnotic act of painting, she still stays grounded and aware of the world around her. Though her work is personal because she imbues it with her own memories and experiences, there is still a sense of universality to them, a sort of nostalgia that the audience can relate and immerse themselves in to.