Settled | Painting on canvas 140x140cm

Original artwork 
Painting on canvas | 140x140cm

Settled holds that very specific moment of release, when stress finally leaves the body instead of staying lodged somewhere under the ribs. It’s not a dramatic collapse, it’s relief: the point where you stop performing “being fine” and just land.

To build the texture and the lighter washes in the background, I used black tea leaves, letting them stain and break the surface in a way paint alone can’t. For me, black tea is a quiet ritual, something warm and steady you return to when you need to slow down, so it becomes more than a material here: it stands for calm, patience, and comfort that settles in gradually.

The small white lines and marks are intentionally left as the unfamiliar element, even to me. I like that they stay a bit unrecognizable. They feel like a glimpse of what we haven’t learned yet, what we’ll only start understanding later. Even in what we release, there’s a small trace of what’s new, what’s still unfolding.