Journal

 

JOURNAL

I love experimenting with different colour combinations and find it exhilarating that not two individuals have the exact same colour taste, that our personal colour preference is shaped by who we are, where we have been and what we have experienced.

I was born in South Korea, and adopted in Norway where I lived until my early twenties before settling in London, the city that’s been my home for the past fifteen years. My personal colour preference is informed by many sources, but l always carry with me the colours of the sky, the beach and the mountain where I grew up. My childhood in Norway has given me my base palette, my love for all shades of blues, browns and greens. These are colours I always come back to.

To add to this, I collect colour stories wherever I go. I collect these stories on my way to the studio, going back to Norway and on my travels. These fragmented colour combinations collected as photos act as catalysts for the more extensive colour work I undertake in my studio.

 

Blue from Wales

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PUSH ON

To brake free from what we know requires bravery and to push on is sometimes the only way we are going to get to where we want to go.

The painting above is part of my ‘Connected’ series.

Everything is connected, the past and the present, what we do off and online. This body of work is informed by the way we as human beings relate and interact with each other. Paintings are mostly abstract but if you look closely you might spot characters interacting within the frame, that’s if you choose to.

I am interested in striking a balance between free expression of colours and brush strokes fuelled by human emotion and finding a moment of stillness.For me, the dots in my work represent islands of clarity and focus.

The blue colour used in this painting was directly inspired by an outer building spotted in Llandysul in Wales.

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Maria Hatling