Artist Statement
As an artist who has a story of migration to the UK within my own family's history, and as an avid walker and lover of verdant space, I am fascinated by the myth of the English landscape as a visual epitome of Englishness. Created over centuries, our 'green and pleasant lands', which are laden with our class system, are in fact highly collaged fantasy vistas consisting of flora and fauna from around the globe.
With a focus on the English Gardens of stately homes, I'm considering how these undeniably beautiful landscapes have dark roots and exist often as a result of colonialism, or paid for by the profits of the slave trade. But their present and future existence is of equal importance, and so my work is also exploring the role these spaces can play in both healing painful element's of England's history, but also in healing our natural world in light of climate change.
Rather than create literal depictions the natural world, the technique I am developing seeks to use paint to tell the story and to form landscapes which are based both on real places that exist and from my imagination. I use oil paints combined with linseed oil which is then removed, corroded or distorted with solvents. To retain translucence I refrain from using white paint to create luminosity, and instead I rely on this removal of paint to create light. The technique is also personal to me in that it follows an ancient spiritual rule of removing darkness to create light.
With a focus on the English Gardens of stately homes, I'm considering how these undeniably beautiful landscapes have dark roots and exist often as a result of colonialism, or paid for by the profits of the slave trade. But their present and future existence is of equal importance, and so my work is also exploring the role these spaces can play in both healing painful element's of England's history, but also in healing our natural world in light of climate change.
Rather than create literal depictions the natural world, the technique I am developing seeks to use paint to tell the story and to form landscapes which are based both on real places that exist and from my imagination. I use oil paints combined with linseed oil which is then removed, corroded or distorted with solvents. To retain translucence I refrain from using white paint to create luminosity, and instead I rely on this removal of paint to create light. The technique is also personal to me in that it follows an ancient spiritual rule of removing darkness to create light.
To read more on Twinkle's background, including collaborations with artist Tinsel Edwards, you can read the essay Affluence and Avarice by painter Graham Crowley here.