Artist Musing: Finding My Voice

I had a really grounding chat with my friend Jo today — she’s been painting for years and her work has such presence and confidence to it. Talking to her reminded me that everyone starts where I am right now — experimenting, doubting, learning, and trying to find that thread that ties everything together.

When discussing my art, Jo mentioned the importance of cohesion — of letting your pieces talk to each other, even if they all come from different emotions or techniques. That stuck with me. I think I’ve been so focused on getting each piece right that I hadn’t stopped to look at how they all might connect. Maybe that’s what’s next for me — finding that rhythm that runs through them all.

She also said that it’s not about perfection or polish; it’s about honesty and storytelling, I love that. Even with abstract work, there’s still a narrative — you just have to trust that people will feel it. My palettes often emerge from stories that are created in my mind from inspiration — taking something fleeting and evolving it into a narrative, with emotion and intent. When the paints flow and settle, they tell their own version of that story. They find their rhythm, merge and drift, creating something uniquely theirs. Each pour becomes a conversation between intention and chance, between me and the materials.

Abstract Fluid Art has become very popular recently and so I am trying to find my own voice in what is a saturated market, my niche and something that a collector will recognise as an RJ Collective piece. Jo loved the idea of building texture and depth into my work — not just letting the pour be the final image, but using it as part of the story. That’s exactly what I want to explore next, especially with pieces like the Sea & Cliffs concept, where movement and form can merge into something new.

Mixed-media working with contrast is my passion, it always was in the crafting world so its not surprising that it is emerging through my art too. That said, I create what feels right to me and also what I like and I just hope that others see the same in my works. Sometimes in the moment, I need to just pour, to get it out on canvas, to let the flow guide me, other times I want to create something that I have planned meticulously and pondered over before setting things in stone.

It’s funny — the more I prepare for this gallery exhibition, the more I realise it’s not just about finishing the paintings. It’s about finding my voice within them and building that narrative and connection.

It was an incredibly powerful and reflective discussion and I am incredibly lucky to know someone as supportive and kind as Jo. So the question is “What now?”, after this reflective piece, where do I go from here?

From here, my focus is on cohesion — exploring what it really means for a collection to feel connected. I want to start setting clearer intentions for each new piece, not to restrict the creative flow, but to weave a stronger thread through my work. To see how emotion, palette, and movement can echo and evolve from one canvas to the next.

I have a list of to make items which I am going to work through to build my first collection and so in doing so I can find my voice and build the cohesion between my current works.

That feels like the next chapter — discovering what cohesion means for me as an artist, and how those connections can quietly speak across a body of work. I’ll keep sharing my learning and musings here, as the process unfolds — the messy, beautiful, ever-evolving story of an artist finding her rhythm.