Painting waterlilies feels like an artist’s rite of passage - a familiar subject that still invites deeply personal interpretation. In this work, I approached the theme through abstraction, using expressive colour and layered mark-making to move beyond representation and into feeling.

The process became highly experimental for me, with acrylic layers repeatedly built up, scraped back, and glazed to create depth and luminosity. Oil pastels introduced texture, loose linework, and immediacy across the surface. I intentionally allowed traces of the process to remain visible, embracing spontaneity and unexpected colour relationships.