Cycles of Perception, 2025

Painting Studio, Winchester

Featuring artworks by Lucy Grant, Vera Dograsvili, Andrii Stupak and Maraal Al Riyami.

Perception runs deep in the way the visual arts portray the reality around us. Nature has a strong narrative pull across the artworks displayed; be that the death of a pot plant or our human relationship to it. Throughout the different narrative stages and methods, the paintings have used, they all have a focus on colour and brushstrokes, connoting a fluid and expressive state. Purple energetically threads the works together, a colour typically associated with transcending spirituality. A combination of red and blue, violet leads into the duality of cycles of perception, as well as being everywhere around us in the ultraviolet light we see. This exhibition is a showcase of six different works that are interlinked by their ability to question your perception of overlooked moments and ideologies.

Lucy Grant’s painting “Blue Velvet One” explores the transposition of details in a small rock to that of a landscape, taking into account the scale and grandeur traditionally associated with it. Through this expansion of marks and a playfulness with shape and colour, the rock’s initial embodied perception is altered as the artist saw fit. Grant’s artistic practice has a strong grounding in the surrounding natural world; their abstraction appreciative of the everyday moments of awe discovered.

Vera Dograsvili’s painting “Entwined” explores the deep entanglement between humanity and nature, depicting elongated figures that seamlessly merge into tree-like forms. The swirling patterns and rich colours create a sense of movement and transformation, suggesting how history, trauma, and identity become part of the landscape. This relates to Cycles of Perception—just as trees hold the marks of time, people also carry the impact of oppression and displacement. In Vera’s practice, she continuously explores the interconnectedness between people and the natural world, using organic forms and flowing patterns to reflect how we are shaped by our surroundings, which often suggests that nature is not separate from human experience but a living witness to history, memory, and change.

Andrii Stupak’s painting captures the quiet tragedy of trying to fix something that was doomed from the start. The tulips are already dead, yet they sit under ultraviolet light, as if that could somehow bring them back. But no amount of care or effort can change the fact that they have no roots, no way to survive. This is about misplaced determination—pouring energy into something that will never thrive, simply because the mistake was made too early to undo. The deep purples and reds emphasize that tension, a desperate glow against inevitable decay.

Maraal Al Riyami’s work explores cultural storytelling, self-expression, and the evolving nature of Omani heritage through abstraction and mixed media. Her paintings reinterpret henna’s structured patterns into fluid, expressive strokes, embracing spontaneity over precision. In "Blooming I" and "Blooming II" she transforms henna into vibrant, organic movement, reflecting its transient beauty. These works reject control in favor of spontaneity, echoing the impermanence and evolving identity of tradition. "Embers of silence" she merges photography and paint, depicting an Omani girl enveloped in swirling brushstrokes, where abstraction and realism blend to create a meditative stillness, symbolizing the harmony between tradition and modernity. By fusing structured cultural motifs with intuitive movement, Al Riyami challenges expectations, redefining heritage as something fluid and evolving.