This piece has been entered into the 2012 Signature Art Prize www.signatureartprize.com. It is available to purchase but it may not be available for delivery until October if selected as a semi or finalist. We will contact you regarding delivery if you purchase.

My practice involves painting on to my skin, photographing this act, and then painting over this image. Mimicking the photographed paint, and creating a layering of image of paint and painted image. I am very interested in the materiality and substance of paint, and my work plays with how paint can be used and manipulated. By painting on to my own body and creating a portrait, a portrait of paint, I question the notion of traditional portraiture, and the boundaries between painting and photography.

‘Space Shilpa’ takes my practice and adds an element of collage with the introduction of images of galaxies, the moon, and stars for their uncanny quality of looking like paint strokes. This touches further on ideas of playing with different forms of imagery, mimicry, and layering, which are all major themes in my work.

The Shilpa series was influenced by one image I found in Wallpaper* magazine (attached). It shows the amazing headdress created by milliner 'Little Shilpa' from her collection based on Indian God's. I loved the colour combinations in her work and emulated this on myself. We both essentially used the colours to adorn, disguise, and cover.

Digital print on archival paper, with overlying oil paint and collaged images mounted on Dibond.