Green – Jina Wallwork

Influenced by the abstract period of Philip Guston and other abstract expressionists, I began to think more consciously about the act of mark-making. The use of gesture has appeared in my work before; however, I began to think of those gestures as being a unique movement and expression of self, rather than simply an aspect of my technique. A gesture can’t be shaped or repeated exactly, and I began to find this very interesting. In this piece I explore the contrast between soft brushstrokes against sharp brushstrokes. I created the soft brushstrokes with long soft movements and the short brushstrokes with sharp and immediate actions. The process appears within the aesthetics of the work. It is a balance between two complete opposites.