Painting

Slip Through

Caitlyn Sims

Light exploration series

Slip Through, oil on canvas, 36″ x 54″ (in), 2026

Slip Through is a two-part series that explores the subtle complexities of light and shadow that often go unnoticed in daily life. It focuses on the negative spaces shaped by objects, sunlight, and their changing shadows. In this work, I move away from the boundaries of strict subject matter and shift my attention toward technical application as a means of translating the visual language of light.

This series tries to hold onto brief, shifting moments that are never fully still. It is rooted in my interest in quantum light theory, particularly the idea that light behaves as both a wave and a particle. Something inherently difficult to measure or contain. Light, in this sense, becomes an untameable energy, operating in multiple states at once.

As a result, Slip Through becomes an exploration not only of the painterly medium, but also of the intersections between the scientific, the bodily, and the mechanical.

Slip Through II, oil and acrylic on canvas 36″ x 24″ (in), 2026

Slip Through, expanded

Slipping into a memory, oil and flashe on canvas, 36″ x 24″ (in), 2026

Puddles

Soak staining and colour focus

Puddles is a painting series that explores a collaborative relationship between myself and my materials. Each work begins with a soak stain, a process that remains central to my practice. I saturate the canvas with water to form a shallow surface, then introduce acrylic ink, tilting and moving the canvas to let the colours merge naturally before drying overnight.

This method allows me to set aside expectation and invite unpredictability, creating a balance between my control and the autonomy of the paint. After the initial stain, I reintroduce structure by outlining the forms that emerge using opaque oil paint.

Some examples of the soak staining process and results:

Is that a fence?

It’s whatever you want it to be. These works explore the process of layering and formulated barriers within a painting, blurring foregrown and background.