Hetty Douglas makes paintings using “acrylic, spray paint, charcoal and structure gel. Normally on board, canvas, or Perspex.” The London-based artist tends towards the tongue-in-cheek, layering slangy phrases through brightly-colored paint to build works that seem fun and silly at first glance, but actually “obscures a hidden, deeply personal response.”
Douglas says that the motivations behind her work are “all just thoughts I’ve had that have come into my head a lot about previous relationships and people I meet. I write that thought down, then transfer it on to a painting.”
Lately, she has been moving away from the use of text, though, favoring a more abstract style of expression. “My more recent work hasn’t been so heavily text-based, less phrases and more individual works, numbers, or symbols. I’m currently working on larger-scale paintings and experimenting with painting onto Perspex.”
It’s easy to envision Douglas’ works as gallery wall-sized, monolithic canvases. The soft pinks and neon blues that dominate her paintings are richly textured in a way that makes you want to get up close to the work. Keep scrolling to see our selection of Douglas’ work, and find more on her portfolio, built using Format.
