What Painting Carries Forward

Cleidi Hearn

A painting does not begin with the plant alone. It begins with previous encounters, previous decisions and the history carried forward from earlier works. Once an encounter with the plant has passed, the previous painting becomes part of what the next painting inherits.

Returning to the same cultivated plants across successive paintings means that each work begins from a different point of encounter. The plant has changed, but so has the history of the paintings. Earlier images remain through colour and form, becoming traces that each new painting transforms.

The material process reflects this accumulation. Translucent layers build slowly, allowing previous decisions to remain visible within the surface. Forms shift, soften and disappear, while earlier gestures continue to influence what emerges.

Because each painting begins from memory, the continuity between works is never a repetition of what came before.

The plant is recalled through previous images, accumulated experience and changing perception. Each return therefore carries both recognition and change.

Through this repeated return, cultivation becomes both a subject of the paintings and a way of understanding their development over time. Each work emerges from previous conditions while creating new possibilities.

The series is conceived as a continuous development in which each painting inherits and transforms what came before. Therefore, no painting should not be considered in isolation.

No painting becomes a final image. Each one changes what the next painting can become.