My practice explores environmental awareness, human-animal relationships and the ethics of observation. Through large-scale painting, I investigate how acts of looking shape our understanding of the natural world and the beings within it. Working with layered colour, portraiture and immersive scale, I aim to create spaces that encourage viewers to slow down, reflect and consider their emotional proximity to the subjects that may appear familiar but ultimately unknowable. Central to my work is the tension between visibility and understanding, questioning whether seeing alone can foster a genuine connection.

Condition of Looking I and Condition of Looking II are two large-scale gouache and acrylic paintings. Each work presents a male lion from a different perspective, creating a visual dialogue centred on observation and captivity. With a visible grid across both paintings, it functions simultaneously as a classic painting technique and as a symbolic reference to the cages and barriers associated with zoo environments. While the scale approximates a face-to-face encounter, the grid remains creating inaccessibility, highlighting contradiction between proximity and separation. Through portraiture, colour and composition, I hope to encourage reflection on the conditions of looking itself, suggesting visibility does not necessarily lead to understanding and that animals exist beyond human observation as subjects in their own right.

Following graduation, I plan to continue creating artwork that raises awareness of environmental issues and encourages people to reflect on how we care for our planet.