Heather Horsley Art

After years as a narrative illustrator, I shifted to abstract acrylic painting to explore a more emotional, internal language. My work now centre’s on intuitive, imaginative mark-making—gestures that express mood over meaning. Where illustration relied on clarity, abstraction lets me embrace ambiguity, layering colour, texture, and movement to reflect memory, tension, and transformation. I begin without a plan, guided by feeling and instinct, allowing each piece to evolve through improvisation and accident. Though echoes of my illustrative past remain, my current process is raw, personal, and fluid. These paintings are not meant to be read, but felt—inviting viewers to connect through their own emotional lens, making meaning in the spaces between form and feeling.