Over the past few months, I’ve felt my practice transitioning — stretching beyond what I thought it was, expanding into new possibilities, together with a deepening of my understanding of my own work. It feels like a good time to reintroduce myself.
I’m Shelly Pamensky, a London-based artist.
I’ve realised that I create art from the space where doubt and desire collide
The desire to create something luminous. Still. Expansive. A surface that holds awe.
And alongside that, the constant uncertainty of whether it will succeed. Because of the materials I work with — industrial metal flakes, layered particles, automotive paint - the outcome cannot be fully controlled, and failure is always a possibility.
I’ve realised recently that this tension is not something to overcome. It is the force that drives the work forward.
It pushes me to experiment. To problem-solve. To refine. To reimagine what the surface can hold.
This period has led to the emergence of cloud paintings - atmospheres built from light and suspension.
It has also led me to experiment with gradients where the particles themselves form the transition, rather than relying solely on paint, in a layered and precarious process. When successful, the result is mesmerising, with a depth that feels almost immaterial.
I’ll be sharing more about this expansive phase in my upcoming posts. Please follow along, and feel free to get in touch if my work resonates with you.
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“Lust “ (The Opening Series)”
Metallic micro-flake pigment and automotive paint on linen
110 x 125 cm
The Opening Series refers to a gradient formation built from the top down and the bottom up, creating a central opening within the surface.
After effort is exhausted, there comes a moment that requires a different kind of action: surrender. Not as giving up, but as giving in, a deliberate step back to create the space for what is sought to enter.
Here, the mix of colours: reds, pinks, purples, magentas, and orange, resist clarity. It becomes difficult to define where one colour ends and another begins, or what colour this gradient even is.
But this lack of clarity holds something important. It suggests that certainty does not always come from knowing how things will unfold. You can be clear in your intention, while the form it takes remains undefined.
As long as the desire is certain, the how, when, and why are not yours to control. They rarely arrive in the way you imagine.
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#shellypamensky
Yesterday @dcontemporary with the @studiotogallery community founded by curator, collector, and mentor @soniabblondon .
It was a really inspiring event of conversation and connection, hearing from the exhibiting artist during the panel discussion, meeting fellow artists and members of the platform, and spending time with Sonia and the team at D Contemporary.
I’m especially excited that I’ll also be showing my work there this June as part of an upcoming group exhibition.
Thank you to Sonia, D Contemporary, and everyone involved for such a warm and engaging event.
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#StudioToGallery #SoniaBorrell
#ContemporaryArt #ArtistCommunity
ArtTalk
In early January 2025, on an unusually beautiful winter morning in London, I felt an instinct telling me to go for a walk on Hampstead Heath, not with my iPhone, but with my digital camera.
What happened next still feels difficult to fully explain.
The beauty of the day, and the way the light moved across the Heath, was astounding. I felt that very strongly, and I began trying different things with the camera, things I can’t even recall now. It was as if I became a channel, allowing an unexplained ability to flow through me and capture what was in front of me.
When I uploaded the photos, I was truly blown away by what I had captured.
I didn’t know it then, but these images marked the beginning of a shift in me and in my work, a growing recognition of the importance of light in my paintings, and a deeper calling to embrace spirituality in my life.
The question is: how was I able to do something beyond my capability on that day?
I now understand the spiritual answer.
At the time, I was at a low point in my life. And it is precisely in that state that allowed something to open, to try new things, to do things differently, to become more real, more raw, more honest. It explains why I followed that instinct, and why I was open enough to become a channel.
When things are going well, there is a natural tendency to stay within what is known. There is comfort in familiarity, in repeating what already works.
But difficulty disrupts that.
Staying the same no longer feels viable.
Today, these images have become a source for my current light activation work. As I think more deeply about painting in relation to light, I can trace something essential back to that moment.
That day marked a shift.
It was the beginning of understanding that my work is not only about colour, but about light itself. How it appears, how it transforms, how it can be held within a surface.
And also, a recognition of my own responsibility:
not just to paint the light,
but to become more like it.
“Silver Linings”, 2025 Pearlised micro-flake pigment and automotive paint on museum quality canvas with wooden frame 110 x 100 cm
Hovering bands of colour rise in quiet suspension, held in deliberate separation. At the top, a grey field settles like a horizon. It is not absence, but weight. It carries the title within it, a muted reminder that light often hides inside restraint.
The composition resists emotional excess. Each layer is placed with precision, built through a process that allows no correction. Metallic micro-flake pigment and translucent automotive paint demand control under pressure. The surface appears calm, yet it is the result of tension sustained without fracture.
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#emergingart #light #contemporarypainting #gradientpainting
This is the moment that makes me nervous every time…
It’s almost impossible to fully control where the flakes will land, or whether the gradient will resolve as intended.
There is so much preparation leading up to this point — and it can all be undone here. The adhesive dries within minutes, so everything has to happen under intense time pressure.
This is “performance painting”.
I only enter this stage when my mind is clear and my energy is steady. At this point, thinking has to stop. Control has to loosen. I have to trust the process and let it happen.
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“Sandstorm (The Opening Series)” Metallic micro-flake pigment and automotive paint on premium raw linen 110 x 125 cm
The first of the opening series, it stood close to rejection. The transition was not smooth enough. The surface resisted refinement. For a moment, it seemed to fail.
Instead of discarding it, I intensified the process. Layer upon layer of paint was added, far beyond the usual. The lustre remained intact. What emerged was a granular, almost sand like texture, shimmering yet unsettled.
“Sandstorm” carries the memory of near collapse. Its surface feels swept, as if colour itself were caught in a sandstorm. The gradient does not dissolve gently. It moves like wind driven particles, suspended between control and surrender.
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#ContemporaryArt #ArtistProcess #LondonArtist #LightInArt #ModernPainting
This is why the gradient holds such intensity.
It is never a single layer.
First, the spray-painted under-layer Then hand-mixed micro metallic particles Finally, a veil of automotive paint applied by spray gun
Each stage intensifies the depth and light of the surface
What appears minimal is structurally complex.
This is how the surface holds duality — stillness and intensity existing simultaneously. A calm field of colour that carries depth, pressure and movement beneath it.
The mesmerising quality is not accidental. It is built, layer by layer.
#ContemporaryArtCollector #Process #LightAndColour #emergingartist
#artprocess
“The Opening Is Blue (The Opening Series)” Metallic micro-flake pigment and automotive paint on linen 110 x 125 cm
The Opening Series refers to a gradient formation built from the top down and the bottom up, creating a central opening within the surface.
Desire is the force that moves us forward. It asks us to act, to strive, and to apply ourselves fully in order to materialise what we seek. But effort has its limit. Not everything is within our control.
After effort is exhausted, there comes a moment that requires a different kind of action: surrender. Not as giving up, but as giving in. A deliberate step back to create the space for what is sought to enter.
These gradients hold that threshold. Intensity gathers at the top and bottom of the canvas, while the centre softens and opens — a space where control loosens and allowing begins.
My process reflects this. The work comes into being in a state of flow, where thought recedes, control loosens, and the painting is allowed to unfold. The effect of this blue moves one from intensity to surrender.
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#contemporaryartcollector
#abstractpainting
#colourfieldpainting
#blue
#emerginart
“Interconnected”
Metallic micro-flake pigment and automotive paint on canvas, woven reconstruction with frill
This work is reconstructed from two flawed gradients, cut apart, rewoven and combined with raw hessian cloth. What began as imperfect surfaces were reassembled into a structure that feels grounded and elemental.
The rawness of the hessian introduces a tactile contrast to the refined luminosity of the encrusted strips. The woven pattern carries an almost geometric, tribal rhythm, opposed by the turmeric dyed frill and the presence of natural fibres.
“Interconnected” draws me back to my South African roots. The materials feel closer to earth, to origin, to memory. The work becomes a meeting point between refinement and rawness, between past and present, held together through deliberate reconstruction.
#Interconnected
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A compilation of surfaces.
Each one catching light differently. Each one shifting as you move. Each one asking you to slow down.
My work is not only about colour, it is about holding awe.
To create a surface that grips the eye just long enough for something to soften. For attention to settle. For a moment of introspection to open.
I am searching for that threshold, where surface invites sensation, and sensation becomes an inner journey.
To evoke emotion, to invite connection.
This is both the challenge and the reason for my work.
#ContemporaryArt #awe #innerconnection #emergingartist #ConsciousCollecting
