The Exclusive Story Only This Piece Can Tell.

“Hi” started with perhaps the smallest word we use to begin something. We say it when we enter a room. When we meet someone for the first time. At the beginning of a conversation, a collaboration, a friendship — sometimes a life-changing relationship. New job. New city. New year. New chapter. Before we know what any of it will become, there is often this tiny moment of courage and possibility - Hi! I love how little the word promises. It doesn’t perform. It doesn’t explain. It simply opens the door. That simplicity found its way into the painting. At first glance, Hi is almost relentlessly pragmatic: grey, reduced, functional. Much of its colour has been painted over, as if practicality had decided there were more important things to do. But look longer and the personality refuses to disappear. Red, orange and deep purple break through the surface. Traces remain. The character looks back at you with those enormous eyes, quietly impossible to overlook. Perhaps we are a little like that, too. We learn to be efficient. Appropriate. Professional. We edit ourselves to fit the room and get on with what needs to be done. And still, somehow, our true colours find a way through to say “Hi”.