Painting for me is a form of study.

It is a patient and meditative practice which focuses the attention and illuminates life's forgotten details and mysteries.

Slowing down. Breathing in. Peering under.

Painting is about the preservation of skill and the experience of the tactile. My work follows skin, light, and shadow through expressions of humility, strength, and longing. They are silent and sentimental icons made to elicit sympathy and wonderment. They are tender homages, secret dispatches, and quiet lustful meditations; studies of faces in sanctuary and subjection.

My newest figurative paintings explore the luminous possibilities of working with brass and aluminum sheets; using the warmth and depth of the metal to encircle and embellish the figures. The panels serve as intimate windows, portholes into hushed and hidden centers. In addition to this ongoing series, works on wood, canvas, and other mixed-media constructions also continue to surface at will.

Heather Michele Yelland