Shaanea Mendis Sri Lanka, b. 1982

Shaanea Mendis contemplates on intricate biological patterns and textures from nature in her pen, ink and watercolour renderings and experiments with oxidised iron stains, gold leaf and verdigris. Her work is concerned with the growing distance between humankind and nature and the quick succession in which forested areas are flattened to make way for urban landscapes.

She describes her process of mark-making through pen and ink as the ‘spilling over of memories on paper or canvas’. Textural patterns found on old weathered trucks, fingerprints, skin, leaves, barks of trees or marks created by moss growth are but examples of mark-making in nature, which she observes before allowing it to manifest organically on paper. In her work with rust stains, Shaanea leaves mark-making to the chance interaction of iron with oxygen and water, allowing natural processes to determine the outcome.

The series, which she calls "Cellscapes" is a beautiful and intriguing depictions of imaginary organic structures. Her cellscape work tends to draw the onlooker gradually into a meditative contemplation of nature's building blocks. Her work is beautiful and intricate, thought provoking, yet never didactic.