I grew up in a small village in Northamptonshire, England, and a lot of my childhood consisted of drawing on pavements and roads with chalk stones, collecting wildlife, exploring meadows and reading horror stories.

My experiences throughout life feature in my paintings whether visual or emotional – nature, dreams, grief, hope and death are among them, mostly executed with the female form as the main focus.

Oils are the primary medium I work with, painting with these is an intense process which tends to come together over time. Watercolours are a reprieve and, for me, are more spontaneous and provide instant gratification. 

Life is full of contradictions, contrast and duality. We can’t have joy without sadness, life without death or light without the dark and I adore finding the beauty within the shadows – it’s where we spend a lot of our time after all.

Rebekah Merea*

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*pronounced ‘Muh-ray-uh’