Lydia Makin

Lydia Makin received her BA in Painting from the Slade School of Fine Art in 2020 and her MA Painting from the Royal College of Art in 2024. In her process, Makin seeks out and responds to moments of discovery as they arise on the canvas. As she intuitively hones in on spontaneous discoveries, she works with the application of various glazes which again can shift the entire dynamic of the image. Through keeping the surface wet, she remains free and loose to make her brushstrokes with unhesitating confidence. Many of the seeds of her current practice derive from a visit to Rome three years ago. She was instantly drawn to the theatricality of old masters such as Caravaggio and Raphael in addition to embodiments of female spiritualism: goddesses, saints, demons and witches. These permeate her work through a variety of different channels: the sensual, the structural, the psychological and the symbolic.