Michele Payne West Sussex, United Kingdom

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Based on the South coast in Sussex, UK, I’m an abstract-expressionist painter, previously with a long career in printed textile design. Over the past six years, I’ve returned to my first love of painting and drawing, bringing my passion for colour and pattern to my art, whilst at the same time finding joy in a more spontaneous, intuitive approach to creating.

Many of my paintings are an infusion of my favourite, often blurry, memories and connections. With vibrant colour palettes, expressive mark-making, fragmented buildings, suggested landscapes and undergrowth, I attempt to capture the feelings of those memories - beautiful moments that have brought me joy, reflection, catharsis or that have held me in times of grief and loss. I feel that our memories are an important part of who we are and how we hold on to connections to our loved ones. My most recent paintings are also a consideration of what it means to belong in a larger sense, where we make our homes, and how much we need those connections; to each other and to the natural world as a whole.