🌿Where the pauses between paintings find their voice.

Cheryl Quejada Canning|Ningjada Sydney, 6 April 2026

Excerpt

A look at the quiet space between artworks — the pause where intuition, memory, and meaning begin to form.

🌿Why I Choose to Remove Rather Than Add

There are things we strip away in order to feel more like ourselves.

For some, it’s noise. For others, clutter. For me, it has always been scent. I’ve never been drawn to perfume or fragranced products — not because of sensitivity alone, but because they feel like something placed on top of what is already true. A layer that alters rather than reveals.

Over time, I realised this instinct shows up in my work as well.

When I paint, I’m not trying to decorate a surface. I’m responding — to material, to memory, to something internal that doesn’t always have language. I build layers, yes, but not to embellish. I layer to uncover. To arrive.

A barefaced portrait of the artist wearing an accent necklace made of organic materials from the Philippines — a piece she has owned for over a decade. Behind her hangs Earth Mother, an early oil painting that reflects her connection to land, memory, and quiet strength.

Often, the most important decision is not what I add, but what I remove.

There is a moment when too much becomes noise: too many marks, too much colour, too much intention. That is when I stop. Or scrape back. Or let the work breathe. The space between decisions — that is where the painting begins to speak.

In Between Paintings is about that space. The pause. The adjustment. The quiet knowing that something is either true or not.

Choosing to remove is not about emptiness. It is about presence — the kind that allows the real thing to reveal itself.

For now, this is where I pause.