Deborah Ann Graham- MA Fine Art
I am an oil painter whose practice is rooted in gesture, materiality, and the tension between representation and abstraction. Working with rich, often seasonally influenced colour, I begin with an idea rather than a fixed image, allowing the painting to evolve through a process of exploration and discovery.
My work draws on imagery from a variety of sources, including painting studies, drawings, and collected visual references. These elements are brought together through collage, which serves as a framework for the painting while simultaneously disrupting certainty and preventing the image from becoming overly resolved. The collage process helps me maintain a space of abstraction, where intuition and formal relationships can guide the development of the work.
Layered surfaces emerge through the process of making, as forms shift between recognition and ambiguity. I am interested in the point at which recognition gives way to uncertainty, inviting viewers to move between what is seen and what is sensed. Through this interplay of gesture, colour, surface, and image, my paintings seek to evoke memory, atmosphere, and emotional resonance rather than offer a fixed narrative.
The works remain connected to the visible world while resisting certainty, leaving space for viewers to find their own associations in the painted surface.
