Making the Cut

Making the Cut began as my father Owen Evans’ work, an acrylic pour on a small canvas. Wanting to push the piece in a new direction, he added a bold structure across the surface, then regretted the decision. The painting became something he no longer recognised, and he was close to throwing it away. Instead, he handed it to me, not to repair, but to reimagine.

I chose to follow the very element he saw as the mistake. Using that imposed structure as a guide, I cut the original painting into squares and carried them into a new scale, dispersing them across the surface of a much larger work. The fragments form a shifting field of colour and depth, built on varying levels and punctuated with reclaimed tiles, creating a new kind of architecture from what almost disappeared.

Watercolour washes soften transitions and pull the scattered elements back into a single atmosphere. Texture and distressed structure are created with leftover mortar and sand, giving the surface an earthen, weathered quality, part construction, part landscape. Oil details then deepen shadows, sharpen intersections, and bring focus to small moments of contrast and light.

A painting that might have been discarded becomes the foundation for something larger, and a moment of regret becomes a form of direction. It is about transformation, about how a decision that feels wrong in one moment can become the guide in the next. Making the Cut became a piece that neither artist could have reached alone.

Making the Cut is well suited to interiors that favour structure, contrast, and material depth. Its geometric composition and layered surface create a strong visual rhythm, making it particularly effective in contemporary living spaces, offices, or architectural interiors where a piece can both anchor and activate the wall.

The vertical format lends itself to narrower wall sections or areas between openings, while still carrying enough presence to stand alone. From a distance, the grid-like composition reads as a cohesive structure; up close, the variation in materials and surface detail reveals complexity and movement.

Its palette and texture pair naturally with materials such as timber, concrete, metal, and neutral textiles, making it an effective addition to interiors that balance constructed elements with natural influence.