I have a history of mental health and chronic illness, and over the years have worked hard on my journey of healing. Amongst CBT and years of counselling I found God who changed my life and where my passion for art began. Art is my life now and when I can paint I feel invigorated. Over the years I have found therapeutic aspects gained through the process of making invaluable. My creative journey, a cathartic one, has had a huge influence on my identity. Painting is my way of expressing my relationship with the world and with myself and with my God. My journey as an artist began over 22years ago and has become an integral part of my search for identity. Due to chronic illness I had to give up my business but it turned into an opportunity to pursue my passionate for art; I have a deep need to create with mixed media. In 1998 I graduated with Fine Art B.A. (honours) 1:1, continued with courses and funding awards to develop my practice, and have exhibited mainly in the South of England with particular interest in the area of ‘art and health’. I aim to create moody and mysterious paintings, highly charged with emotional content, whilst my purpose is to take me, and the viewer, into a place beneath the surface. My subjects, if any, are a vehicle for compositional starting points or a sense of place, always with the intention of progressing beyond, into subjective abstraction, intentional ambiguity and material presence. Recently I’m preoccupied with walking and painting local seashores, but the aim remains the same; to capture something between and beyond what is seen, into the unseen. I need to use a mixed media approach, always having a choice of materials, tools and techniques to hand at each given moment, as I love to work spontaneously and intuitively so I can create surfaces and textures, which emotionally and spiritually move me. My method depends on what I am working on and how I feel at the time. I need to be free from thinking to make my paintings work; they have to be from my world of feelings. As a material’s led artist I work intuitively, choosing instinctively and compulsively from diverse materials and processes. I build, scrape back and rework until I find rich surface textures and intangible qualities I am powerfully drawn to, whilst using a predominantly muted palette with contrasting lights and darks; all working towards my vision painting evocative and sensitive pieces. www.mariakuipers.co.uk