New Blood Art Emerging Art Prize nominee Octavia Madden playfully renders a riot of colour, texture and movement in expressive canvases. Fascinated by the nightscapes of Aberystwyth, she contrasts the glow of streetlights, car headlights and shop signs with the darker swellings of sea, sky and mountains – at once joyful and profound. In 2024 she received the Devon Artist Network Emerging Artist Bursary, the Joanna Radford Award, and completed a place at the Royal Drawing School.
Artist statement
In my work, I meld observation with abstraction, translating my surroundings – guided by feeling and memory – into a visual language of marks, patterns, colour, and shape. Lichens play a central role in my art as a lens through which I explore the climate crisis: delicate yet resilient, vital yet often overlooked. My creative practice begins with looking, searching, and discovering in the landscape around me. Walking through and being immersed in the environment reveals deeper layers of the land.
