Chrissie Todd

My practice is an exploration of colour, material and emotional response.

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I work primarily with house paints and their colour palettes, applying commercial paint to locally sourced recycled plywood. I am interested in the familiarity of these materials and the decisions that surround them. Colour is something we encounter constantly, but choosing a colour for a home can be surprisingly personal. A wall colour can alter the atmosphere of a room, evoke a memory, or change how we feel within a space. I am interested in this intersection between colour, psychology and everyday life.

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Since completing my MFA in 2023, my practice has increasingly shifted towards colour as the driving force within the work. Materiality and the reuse of construction materials remain important, but colour has become a way of initiating and navigating each painting. I often begin with a particular colour and an intuitive sense of what it might convey, without knowing exactly where the work will end.

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This uncertainty is central to my process. I allow the paintings to emerge through layering, gesture, experimentation and instinct. I am interested in what happens when control is relinquished and the painting begins to dictate its own direction. The finished work is often different from what I initially imagined.

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My paintings are energetic, raw and unapologetic. I embrace mess, movement and evidence of the process rather than trying to conceal them. I want the work to feel immediate and physical, and ultimately to create an emotional response rather than simply communicate an idea.

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I sometimes draw on imagery from trail running and the environments I move through. These experiences enter the work in fragmented or distorted forms, becoming absorbed into the expressive process rather than functioning as literal representations.

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At its core, my practice is about feeling: the instinctive pull of a colour, the physicality of making, and the possibility that a painting can communicate something before it is understood.