THE BELONGING SERIES

Image: One 'module' from B.E.L.O.N.G.I.N.G

A joyful and thoughtful body of work exploring pattern, colour, and the ways we experience art.

Let’s talk about Belonging - not just the kind you feel when you find your people (though that’s part of it), but the kind that happens when colour, form, and rhythm fall into place and feel… right.

This series is built around a single, evolving geometric pattern and a shared palette of eight carefully chosen colours. Every painting uses these same elements, but by shifting the scale and the placement of colour, each one becomes its own variation - a different take on a shared visual language.

Some works, like True Belonging, are bold and direct. Others, like True Belonging 150 and Gateways to Now, are larger and designed to immerse the viewer. Then there are modular pieces, like B.E.L.O.N.G.I.N.G and Gateways to Now, which were originally shown as unified installations and later separated into individual “puzzle pieces.” That transformation - from collective to individual - is part of the idea: how paintings shift depending on where and how they’re seen.

Repetition and variation play a big role in how I work. I like how they allow paintings to speak to each other - to echo, contrast, and build a kind of rhythm across a body of work. Artists like Andy Warhol and Tess Jaray have shaped my thinking here. Both use variation and repetition to explore themes of duality and interconnectedness in art.

This interest in rhythm and variation is also reflected in my Lux series - a body of original paintings and contemporary giclée prints that, like Belonging, explore transformation through colour and form.

Image: Belonging series installed in PS1 Arts University Plymouth, 2024
Photo Credit: Anna Edwards

The paintings in Belonging were made during my MA in Painting, but the questions they raise still shape my practice today:

How does scale in contemporary painting affect how we feel in front of a work?
How does colour theory and mood influence the emotional impact of abstract art?
How do patterns and visual systems become playful, expressive forces?

Peter Halley once said, “I strongly believe in making art that can be looked at quickly.”¹ I love that. In a world of constant noise, art with immediate visual impact speaks to our fast-paced lives. Like Halley, I want to create something explosive and immediate - that feels bold and direct. But I also hope that, if you give the work time, it rewards closer looking. The quiet details and subtle ambiguities draw you in.

At its core, Belonging is about the experience of seeing - how pattern, colour, and variation work together to create an emotional connection through abstract painting. Some of these paintings have already found new homes. Others are still available. But more importantly, the ideas behind them are still unfolding - and they’ll continue to shape what comes next.

1. Peter Halley, Interview with Kathryn Hixson, 2000, https://www.peterhalley.com/interview-with-kathryn-hixson.