Betsey Kilpatrick

 My practice emerges, changing continuously, as a collection of unconscious drives. My work raises questions concerning completion and non-completion, a borderline between form and abstraction, floating between realms, offering space to contemplate the ‘not-there’ possibilities of painting. I like the idea that my paintings are breathing, something I cannot see, generating an indistinct sense or feeling of life within a two dimensional object.

 I am interested in creating an essence to my work that offers a familiar sense of connection with nature, similar to water or organic forms, a moment caught in the midst of its own becoming, a movement or flow. Allowing motifs to appear is part of not being in control of the process. Paradoxes are present as there is both a feeling of movement and stillness in the paintings inviting the viewer to spend time with them. My images have a familiar appearance as satellite images from space or an underwater likeness. I aim to create an uncertainty in perception with the hope of finding a relationship with my own authentic self. 

The work is a building-up of translucent layers of colour. Within these hidden depths a mood or sensation forms. Through my curiosity of paint and how it moves I expose and hide layers through a process of erasure. An entwinement of the physicality of paint and the experience of seeing.