MESSY MAGIC

This piece is called Messy Magic — a bold, expressive abstract layered with splatters, texture, and multiple mediums.

As an artist, I’m the first to admit my practice is far from controlled or pristine. I lean into the chaos. I love being in that creative zone — paint flying, ideas unfolding, mess everywhere. There’s always a moment where it becomes overwhelming, where the clutter catches up with me… and then comes the inevitable, almost cathartic, reset. But until that point, I choose to embrace the mess — in art and in life.

I began this work in July 2025. Beneath the layers, you’ll find the word 'messy' embedded in the underpainting — almost like a quiet premonition. At the time, I couldn’t have known how much that word would come to define the months ahead.

This time last year, my mum was alive and well. Things changed quickly. What followed was a deeply emotional, chaotic period — raw, heavy, and undeniably messy. Yet within that same space, there was also light. I became engaged to a man who not only loves me, but embraces the fullness of who I am — mess and all.

This artwork is an ode to that duality. To the beauty that can exist within disorder. To the highs and lows, the grief and the joy, the unexpected turns. Life is not neat — it’s layered, unpredictable, and wild.

And that’s where the 'Messy Magic' lives. 

With Mother’s Day approaching, the first Mother’s Day without my dear Mum, the work holds her warmth and presence, quietly embedded within it’s layers.

Materials & Specifications
Size
Canvas 100cm x 150cm
Framed 104cm x 154cm

Paints
Golden Fluid Acrylics and Derivan Matisse Heavy Body Acrylics, finished with gold gilding. Sealed with Matisse Polymer Gloss Varnish Medium 7 for a durable, high-gloss protective finish.

Canvas
Painted on 12oz poly-cotton canvas, triple-primed with a tight weave and fine tooth. Australian made and professionally coated for archival quality.

Stretcher
Constructed from kiln-dried New Zealand pine, finger-jointed, underpinned, and braced for strength and long-term stability.

Frame
Shadow box frame in Australian Ash, plantation-grown and kiln-dried. Underpinned and cross-pinned for structural integrity and longevity.