Mixed Media on canvas, stretched and ready to hang.

Signed on the back.

The embers were black, so when they cooled, the charcoal was white. Write your name across the black sky.

Brief Respite is a collection of works whose purpose is to create ephemeral moments of softness for the brain, similar to the feeling of seeing natural geological formations of rock striations such as cliff-faces and canyons, marble slabs, semi-precious stones, windswept sandstone...

The theme is based around the chronic migraines that permeate daily life - the creation of each work was a brief respite from either the symptoms of migraine (excruciating pain, sensitivity to light and sound, sensitive skin, nausea, fatigue, brainfog), or the side effects of the treatment (stiff neck, constricted sternum, lethargy, shallow breathing).

Each work is created to imitate carved stone in some way - clay was used to form the drapes and ripples, and this was all covered in poured paint. Pouring paint is a method of applying paint to the canvas that relies on the molecular properties of the paint and gravity to form natural movement of colour - the same natural process that can be found in the geology of the earth's crust.

May each piece of art bring a brief respite to the overloaded brain.