FROM EARTH TO CANVAS The story behind the minerals, crystals and natural materials within my work

There is something incredibly special about knowing that a material formed within the earth over thousands — sometimes millions — of years can eventually become part of a painting.

My fascination with minerals and crystals has gradually become an integral part of my artistic practice. I collect specimens for their colour, texture, structure and natural imperfections, but also for the stories and associations they carry.

Rather than simply painting something inspired by nature, I wanted to find a way of physically bringing nature into the artwork itself.

Certain minerals and crystals are carefully crushed into finer particles before being incorporated into layers of paint and mixed media. Others may remain more visible, allowing fragments of their original form, texture and subtle luminosity to become part of the finished surface.

It means that every painting develops differently.

As I build the layers, the mineral particles interact with the paint in unpredictable ways, creating tiny variations in texture, reflection and depth that would be almost impossible to recreate with paint alone.

I love that element of imperfection.

My work is often inspired by geological formations, changing landscapes and the extraordinary colours and textures hidden beneath the earth's surface. Bringing the minerals themselves into the painting feels like completing that connection.

The result is artwork that isn't simply intended to be viewed from a distance.

It invites you to come closer.

To notice the surface.

To see where the light catches a fragment of mineral.

And to discover the smaller details hidden within the layers.

For me, that is where much of the beauty lies — transforming something found in the natural world into something completely new, while allowing a little of its original story to remain.

From earth, to mineral, to pigment, to canvas.

Visually, I would make this article gorgeous and tactile: photographs of your mineral specimens, your hands crushing or preparing them, dishes of mineral powder, extreme close-ups of textured areas of paintings, then finally the completed artwork. It would almost take the reader from raw material → process → finished painting.