MEERA PALIA

I am an abstract expressionist scribbler, painter and collage artist now based in Margate, Kent (UK). 

 

I have always had a deep appreciation for raw, spontaneous and improvised art forms and have felt a strong need to create abstract art that feels ‘free’ and made ‘in the moment’. My paintings are therefore unplanned- they evolve out of the colours, textures, marks and moods that emerge throughout the process and whatever emotions or thoughts I am carrying with me at the time. I am basically aiming for the painting equivalent of a jazz jam or a flamenco improvisation, prioritising the energy, authenticity and process of free mark-making over achieving a polished composition or choreographed act. 

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l love the rhythmic, gestural, physical act of painting, when it feels like my hand is freestyle dancing and i am making marks that feel genuinely expressive, 'alive' and intuitive.  I will often paint to music, trying to bring the energy of an interesting beat into my work and to scribble and scratch my way through different layers of paint to reveal some of those underneath. Painting feels like an enquiry, a mysterious dialogue with the unknown. Sometimes figures, landscapes or stories start to emerge. Sometimes they do not. It is this sense of the unexpected and endless possibilities for the re-invention of a painting that I find so compelling.

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My work varies from minimalist to more maximalist outpourings but is always visceral and full of movement. In recent years it has been shaped by experiences of grief, life changes and perimenopausal hormonal mayhem. My hope is that each piece can at least be seen as a celebration of, and warm invitation to consider the vulnerability, therapeutic value and empowerment contained in the act of painting without a defined outcome in mind, with all the imperfections, uncertainty and surprises that can occur when you don’t have a plan and remain open to change, embracing dissonance as well as harmony. 

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I am largely self-taught. After working in different social care and community work settings in my 20s, I began to intuitively experiment with abstract painting later in my 30s, alongside a career teaching A-level sociology and philosophy in London for many years. However, I have attended many inspiring informal abstract art courses at London institutions over the last decade or so- City Lit, Morley College, Central St Martins, Mary Ward Centre and others and am now at a time in my life where art has become my main focus. I hope you will find some work here that you like or that interests you. Please do not hesitate to get in touch with questions or to arrange a studio visit. I always love to hear from people. 

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