Magda Holden

“It is no longer the atom which lives, but the universe within it. ”                                                                                                                                        Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

My artistic practice lies in between two worlds: the spiritual and the physical. The perception of everything being interconnected is the concept that underpins my work. By embracing textures, colours, and organic shapes my practice focuses on combining nature with notions of spirituality through painting to create a space for an otherworldly process of soul-searching and meaning. My paintings trace connections between nature’s micro and macro world which often can result in biomorphic abstract worlds. By working in layers to imbue a sense of depth and form, my paintings crossover from physicality of nature and materiality to an otherworldly and spiritual reality. My scientific interests in nature come through collecting, observing, and analysing the world around me by means of photography, tracing methods, and microscopes. Spiritual knowledge, accumulated through my Christian faith, stories, and keen attention to dreamworld, manifests itself in a dialogue between an intuitive use of my materials and my imagination.  In exploring materiality of wood, paper, and canvas, my art merges various materials such as ink, watercolour, acrylic, oil, pastel, raw pigments, seeds, leaves, twigs, fibres, rain, or soil, and techniques decalcomania, ink pouring, pulp painting, or print making. The subject and the composition of my painting gradually develop in an intuitive way as I immerse myself in the process and action of making until my ideas are fully explored and resolved.