“I am the spectator and the uninhibited, the conductor of an orchestra of my million melodies, both somber and bright, the contradiction of life and the human experience.”
A Childhood Woven with Imagination and Nature
Growing up in the rugged beauty of Cornwall during the 1970s, Heidi Jayne Best was shaped by an unconventional upbringing that instilled in her a profound connection to nature. Born to free-spirited parents who embraced a life of peace and empathy, she absorbed their values and found herself deeply attuned to the world around her. From an early age, she was captivated by the unseen and the fantastical—believing in fairies at the bottom of her garden and mermaids swimming beneath the waves. This innate sense of wonder fueled her creativity, turning daydreams into vivid expressions of art. Nature, with its shifting light and organic forms, became both a guide and an ever-present muse in her life.
As a child, she discovered that drawing and creating brought her a sense of contentment unlike anything else. Art was not simply an interest but an intrinsic part of her identity, a language through which she could communicate emotions too deep for words. Over time, this passion transformed into an unwavering commitment to self-expression. Even during difficult periods when personal circumstances made artistic creation challenging, her identity as an artist never wavered. Rather than a profession or a pursuit, art remained an integral part of her existence—something that shaped the way she thought, felt, and moved through the world.
Her connection to creativity is deeply emotional, sometimes even overwhelming. The process of making art is both a catharsis and a struggle, a way to translate the depths of human experience onto the canvas. Her work is driven by a powerful sensitivity to emotion, allowing her to explore the complexities of identity, femininity, and selfhood. Through the fluidity of paint and the instinctive movement of her body, she channels raw feelings onto the surface, transforming personal introspection into something universal and tangible.
Heidi Jayne Best: Reclaiming Space in Abstract Expressionism
Heidi Jayne Best’s artistic style is rooted in abstract expressionism, a movement historically dominated by male painters. From the moment she began her BA (Hons) degree in 2009, she felt compelled to challenge this precedent, asserting her place within a tradition that had long overlooked female perspectives. Her early works were expansive, physically intense compositions that pushed against outdated notions of masculinity in painting. Using her entire body to manipulate paint—dripping, throwing, and layering with force—she proved that the raw physicality of the medium was not confined to gender. Her work was a declaration: strength, passion, and emotion are not bound by traditional artistic hierarchies.
By 2021, as she pursued her Master’s degree at the University of Derby, her practice evolved in response to a period of critical reflection. The sheer scale and energy of her earlier paintings gave way to a more introspective approach, one that embraced figurative elements within her compositions. While her process still began with fluid, instinctual movement, a newfound sense of structure emerged. This shift allowed her to explore deeper themes of automatism and surrealism, introducing elements of chance and subconscious imagery into her work. The human form began to surface, merging with the abstract to create a dreamlike interplay between body and emotion.
Her process is highly performative, blurring the lines between artist and observer. Painting becomes an act of discovery, where subconscious thoughts materialize in color and form. She likens it to a dance, where movement and critical reflection intertwine, gradually revealing the narrative beneath the surface. Automatism plays a crucial role in this evolution, allowing thoughts and emotions to flow freely without restraint. Her paintings are not premeditated but emerge organically, mirroring the contradictions of human existence—joy and sorrow, clarity and uncertainty, creation and destruction. Through this approach, her work becomes both an exploration of self and an invitation for viewers to project their own emotions onto the canvas.
The Energy of the Studio and the Influence of Masters
Best’s workspace is a reflection of her process—chaotic, expressive, and deeply personal. Covered in layers of oil paint, her studio bears a resemblance to Francis Bacon’s famously disorderly environment, where creativity thrives amid the mess. Music plays an essential role in her practice, setting the rhythm for her movements as she engages in the physical act of painting. Coffee fuels long hours of uninterrupted focus, and solitude allows her to enter the necessary headspace where ideas take form. Within this immersive atmosphere, she creates without distraction, allowing instinct and emotion to guide her.
Her influences span both historical and contemporary artists, beginning with a deep admiration for Vincent van Gogh and the expressionist painters she first encountered in her youth. As she developed her own artistic voice, she gravitated toward the abstract expressionists—Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, and Willem de Kooning—whose approaches to color, movement, and emotion resonated with her. A defining moment in her artistic journey was experiencing Rothko’s work firsthand at the Tate Museum. Sitting alone in the Rothko Room, she found herself moved to tears, overwhelmed by the intensity of his compositions. This profound emotional connection to art reinforced her belief in the power of painting as a means of communication beyond words.
Over time, her focus expanded to include feminist artists whose work challenged traditional representations of the female form and experience. Jenny Saville, Cecily Brown, Tracey Emin, Joan Semmel, and Paula Rego became guiding figures, their explorations of female identity and corporeality influencing her own practice. Through this lens, Best continues to push boundaries, using painting as a vehicle for both personal and collective narratives. Her work is a dialogue between past and present, between abstraction and representation, between the external world and the deeply internal landscape of emotion.
Heidi Jayne Best: The Evolution of Expression and Experimentation
One of the pivotal moments in Best’s artistic journey came with the creation of Emergence (2017), an oil painting that marked her transition into a more surrealistic and figurative approach. This piece, born from her intuitive process, encapsulated the shift she had been moving toward—where automatism and subconscious imagery began to shape her visual language. It was a turning point, demonstrating how elements of abstraction and figuration could coexist within her compositions, allowing new layers of meaning to unfold.
Oil paint remains her preferred medium, offering the fluidity and depth she craves in her work. The ability to build layers, create movement, and achieve rich, complex colors makes it an ideal choice for her expressive style. In the past, financial limitations led her to experiment with acrylics and household paint, especially when working on large-scale canvases. However, the tactility and versatility of oil paint have made it an irreplaceable tool in her practice.
Beyond painting, she has ventured into installation art, incorporating found objects to add new dimensions to her work. By merging painting with tangible materials, she explores themes of memory, identity, and emotional projection. Her installations seek to extend the two-dimensional surface of the canvas into a three-dimensional space, where personal experience and collective history intersect. Though spatial constraints currently limit the scale of her installations, she envisions expanding this aspect of her practice in the future—imagining larger objects such as brass-framed beds and kitchen sinks transformed into vehicles for artistic expression. This evolution speaks to the constant flux of her creative process, where the boundaries of medium and meaning are always being redefined.
