Dancing Tigers is part of Cynthia Howard’s series of paintings where a colourful abstract interpretation emanates from the realistically rendered. The mindset behind the series is that humans and creatures have an inner world that whilst physically intangible, is rich and ever present.

Oil on canvas. 2024.

101.5 x 122 cm

A full mind is a visual representation of the dynamic connections between thoughts, memories and stimuli in a busy, creative mind.

In this painting creatures and objects roam freely between rooms constructed of paper thin white walls. Within these walled compartments are vast worlds to roam and explore: a galaxy, a black hole that disappears into a moon, a city-scape, a cold mountain range.

Whilst the white walls are a nod to the white cube gallery and tradition of drawing and writing on paper, hidden within the composition are nods to psychology and spirituality.

Dimensions: 91.4 x 76.2 x 3 cm

Medium: Oil on canvas

Year: 2022

In this painting a figure falls calmly through an endless galaxy, gently cocooned by a cascading piece of fabric. An abstract figure comprised of colourful shapes emerges from the realistically painted heroine, almost as though she is her spirit self or an alter ego. The torso of this abstract figure is pinched in the centre and shaped like an hour glass.

This work is a meditation on time and being. Time can almost come to a stand still when we are incredibly present or time can race by before we know it. This figure falling through a galaxy is about locating our time and place in the infinite and the passing, and embracing what is and embracing what may be.

The abstract colourful figure emerging like a spirit or alter ego represents the vivid possibilities and pluralities of how we might express ourselves in the world.

"And yes, every one of our body’s atoms is traceable to the big bang and to the thermonuclear furnaces within high-mass stars that exploded more than five billion years ago. We are stardust brought to life, then empowered by the universe to figure itself out – and we have only just begun." - Neil deGrasse Tyson

Dimensions: 76.2 x 86.4 x 3 cm

Medium: Oil on canvas

Year: 2022

In this painting a figure tumbles through good and dark times. Colourful abstract figures also tumble and represent the psychological or spiritual self responding to changing times.

‘This too shall pass’ is a painting about how everything in life, good or bad, comes and goes.

Whilst this painting can be displayed hanging and static, the concept is for the painting to mechanically spin when displayed on a gallery wall.

Year: 2022

Medium: Oil on panel

Dimensions: 60cm diameter

In The Artist prefers colour a figure sits proudly on an armchair. Overlayed on the seated subject emerges an abstract figure composed of assertive dynamic shapes in vivid colours that together echo the seated subjects pose, almost suggesting that it might represent a spiritual self or an alter ego in an alternate dimension.

The Artist prefers colour is a celebration on neuroplasticity and the artist’s wish for each of us to relish in the colourful and dynamic possibilities of ourselves.

Medium: Oil on gessobord.

Dimensions: 45.4 x 60.5 x 3.7 cm

Year: 2021

“Leap was one of my first experiments overlapping my figurative abstract style on top of realistically rendered subjects. I was delighted to find that joining my abstracts with realism created a dialogue between the physical and spiritual, the external and psychological, the fixed and the possible.

I am intrigued by how every animal and human being, even at a young age, has their own personality and I wonder often about what it would be like to perceive the world from their point of view.

For me, the creative freedom of the figurative abstracts allow a visual way of exploring possibilities of expression and mirror my beliefs that, because we all have neuroplasticity and therefore the ability to learn and evolve, we each have dynamic possibilities of expressing ourselves in the world.” - Cynthia Howard

Medium: Pencil and Ink on Paper

Dimensions: 42 x 29.7cm

Year: 2020

Expecting is about braving life’s challenges and surrender to major changes.

In this painting a pregnant woman gazes up to a cloud filled sky, her hand outstretched, expecting child and anticipating the impending storm. The pattern of upside down and right side up clouds and the absence of a clear horizon suggests that the figure is in a surreal limbo between worlds and times. Her striking strong features and halo convey a sense of dignity and strength whilst her kneeling position conveys brave surrender to the present moment and upcoming change.

Expecting is based on a stream of consciousness drawing the artist created whilst her two sisters were both pregnant and channels both the excitement and anxiety towards the unknown and new significant chapters.

Year: 2021

Medium: Oil on canvas

Dimensions: 40.5 x 66 x 3 cm

“This painting is a reinterpretation of Cleopatra by Baroque Italian artist Carlo Maratti (1625-1713).

This contemporary rendition, though based on Maratti’s ‘Cleopatra’ is a departure from the original source and depicts someone else. Whilst Maratti’s painting references the tale of Cleopatra winning a bet by adding a pearl to her drink to provide the most costly feast, I replaced the pearl with a green Mint Drop to signify this paintings departure from the source material into something / someone new.

This painting was an important piece in exploring how to fuse my figurative abstract style with realism, in this exploration reworking a “realistically” painted subject but infusing it with my preferences for colour and line

To me, the end anonymous heroine is self assured and elegant. .” - Cynthia Howard

Year: 2021

Medium: Oil on canvas

Dimensions: 51 x 41 x 3 cm

In this piece a tiger leaps to attack. The tiger’s stripes unravel and house three figures who represent archetypes that exist in all of us. The crouching figure represents our vulnerable inner-child who clings to a second figure for protection. The second figure holds the tiger’s stripes like reigns and represents our inner warrior energy. The third figure tries to calm the latter and represents our inner Wisdom.

This piece is about patterns of human reactivity and the potential to interrupt old behaviours and make more intentional choices.

Oil on canvas. 2022.

82 x 61.5cm

The Narcissus who saved himself is a reineterpretation of Caravaggio’s Narcissus painted in the late 1500s. Narcissus is a mythological figure who fell in love with his own reflection which lead to his demise. In this rendition, Narcissus reaches passed his mirrored reflection to rescue what is underneath. This piece is an exploration of self accountability and focussing on inner work, rather than being distracted by external appearances.

Oil on gessoboard. 2022.

30.5 x 40.5cm

Seeking Sisi is the second portrait of actor Sisi Stringer. Whilst the first portrait Sunday with Sisi was a more traditional portrait focusing on capturing Sisi’s likeness and personality, Seeking Sisi explores the artist’s self awareness of seeking the soul behind the person behind the actor in order to paint her portrait.

Oil on canvas. 2022.

51 x 81.6 cm

In this piece, rays of comet-like-light radiate from a celestial orb. Two figures sit on opposite sides of the light rays, each weaving their own ribbon of thread between the beams. Weaving a relationship is about reciprocity and nurturing relationships, and the tapestry two people create over a history of exchanges.

Oil on canvas. 2023.

66 x 82 cm