Mara Braun would like to acknowledge that the land on which she practices are the traditional lands for the Wurundjeri people, and that she respects their spiritual relationship with their country. She would like to acknowledge the Wurundjeri people of the Boon Wurrung language groups as the custodians of the region and recognise that their culture and heritage is still important then, now and forever. She would like to pay her respects to Elders past, present and emerging.

I am exploring the genre of painting referred to as Fluid Abstraction. In order to create these paintings, I have been using the technique of pouring. This technique refers to preparing substantial quantities of the thinned medium, pouring them onto the chosen and prepared surface and manipulating the wet medium once it is on the surface. I am working with/against the chemical tension that naturally occurs between water and oil and capturing these beautiful patterns and behaviors with the pigments and colours I mix.

 

I am working in this way because I find joy in working with and against the wet and unpredictable mediums. The joy comes from exploring the unknown. The apprehension of not knowing how the paintings will turn out, but doing everything I can in that moment and the time leading up to that moment to create something interesting and eye-catching. It fascinates me that something created on such a small scale and short time period can instantly bring to mind sweeping landscape or cosmic formations.

 

In order to create my work, I have been using structured planning and organised research techniques so as to narrow down my work. I plan to do x number of workers in a pour and then prepare x number of surfaces, I rent a room and do the pour, I then decide what works have been successful and repeat the system using the techniques I thought were successful and expanding on them. I have worked in this way throughout the semester and come across many welcome surprising directions.

 

I have previously described the moment in which I pour and manipulate the wet mediums and how the results echo natural landscapes and phenomena. This moment can be compared to the overall time in which it has taken for these landscapes to naturally form. In the eyes of the universe, this is but a moment. It is so captivating that things of such a different scale can be compared.