Actual size: 70 x 90cm

This painting is akin to a dress. Linen encrusted with glitter and spray to create this bed of simmering fabric which is hand-cut and reconstructed into a woven painting. The middle cinches the piece together much like a corset would, with strips of paint-soaked cotton canvas. Such a manually intensive process, three paintings were used to reconstruct this one.

Being self-taught and of multicultural origin, Shelly Pamensky combines unconventional items not usually associated with one another or fine art in her practice. She works with an innovative layering process of spraying thin veils of automotive paint over glitter and pigment-primed canvas. As the spray hits the ground, the colour fuses with the glittering particles beneath and the surface are transformed into a bed of colour, light and shine.

The artist is drawn to colour and believes in its emotive qualities and ability to make one feel before you can process what you see. She works with colour intuitively and mixes it expressively. Her emotions, environment and fashion influence her colour choices, but she also responds to the needs of the painting as it evolves.

There is a delicate balance between colour and shine, too much colour and the luminosity is lost. This surface tension and paired-back nature of the work imbues the paintings with a delicate nature, which Pamensky believes establishes a sense of intimacy with the viewer.

To these shimmering gradients, she may add words based on her thoughts, memories and feelings. She also cuts these paintings into strips which are then reconstructed into fringed and woven versions, sometimes combining two or more paintings. The whole process is manual and laborious and completely opposite to the increasing digitisation of the art world. The paintings appear three-dimensional as they extend beyond the frame of the canvas.

The surface created whether woven or not is immersive, as is the creative process, which instils in her a deep sense of purpose. There is a feeling of slowing down in the manual processes which pervade the visual aesthetic of the paintings, imbuing them with a sense of calm in antithesis to the frenzy of the outside world.