So chuffed to announce that I’m finalist for a third time this year with “Haft Rangi” selected for the JADA at Grafton Regional Gallery.

Haft Rangi 2022 Found paper, watercolour, pigmented ink, mineral interference pigment, acrylic polymer and graphite on cotton rag 140x140cm

I have been using the repetitive, labour intensive pencil grid system of square and semi-circle as an organising principle for my geometric abstractions for some time. Intertwined is the need to explore figure/ground hierarchies and processes of embedding, overlay and transparency with thinned paint. Key to this is the paper substrate and ensuing happenstance when using water based media on the horizontal.

The hand cut collaged matrix of found and altered papers began as a simple way of dealing with the complexities of colour. They are assembled with reference to the technique of overglaze painted tiles in Iran, called “Haft Rangi” (Persian for seven colours). It’s been 6 years since I travelled through India, Iran and Southern Spain, but only now am I beginning to achieve those wondrous feelings of sitting on the cold, tiled floor of a Masjid in Esfahan where pattern descends, envelops and overwhelms.

Sarah Mufford April 2022