Ebb / Thirst — An Abstract Mixed-Media Diptych

Created in my Mumbles studio on the Gower coastline, Ebb / Thirst is an abstract mixed-media diptych exploring balance, absence and flow through natural materials including shellac, casein paint, plaster, sand and crushed shell.

Ebb / Thirst is an abstract mixed-media diptych developed slowly and with intention.

It is a work that asked for restraint as much as action, shaped by balance and imbalance, movement and stillness, presence and absence.

At its heart, the painting explores contrast.
Water and land. Abundance and depletion. Flow and fracture.

These opposing states sit side by side, not to explain a narrative, but to exist in quiet tension with one another.

I was interested less in telling a story, and more in allowing a feeling to surface. Something sensed rather than described.

The materials are central to how the work came into being.

Shellac, casein paint, plaster, sand and crushed shell were chosen deliberately, not only for their visual qualities, but for the way they behave.

Shellac brings fragility and depth.
Casein offers softness and erosion.
Sand and shell root the work in place and time.

These materials hold memory.
They weather, mark and settle, much like the coastal landscapes that continue to influence my work.

Much of the process involved listening to the surface and knowing when to step back.

There were moments where adding more felt easy, but removing, quietening, or allowing space felt far more important.

Letting the surface breathe became part of the meaning itself.

While the ideas behind Ebb / Thirst shaped how the work was made, they do not need to be fully understood when viewing it.

For me, the meaning sits beneath the surface, guiding decisions, materials and gestures, but once complete, the painting needs the freedom to be met openly.

Each viewer brings their own experience, memory and interpretation, and that openness feels essential.