Sensory Faculty | 16” x 20” | /Mixed media on canvas- with integrated sound/

In galleries and museums, we are taught one rule above all: Don’t touch. Art is presented to the eye alone — distant, protected, untouchable. With Sensory Faculty, I chose to gently rebel against that tradition.

This piece was created as my Final Major Project, born from a desire to expand the way we experience art. For two years leading up to it, I had become increasingly fascinated with texture — not just how a painting looks, but how it feels. I wanted to create something that invites connection rather than distance. Something that asks to be explored.

At first, the idea began as a painting for blind viewers — a work where colour would not dominate, but texture and Braille would carry meaning. As the concept evolved, it became something broader: an artwork engaging four senses at once — sight, touch, sound, and even scent.

The composition draws from an abstracted seascape, inspired by aerial coastal views. Deep blues dissolve into soft whites, echoing sea meeting sand. Reindeer moss, Cornish sand, sea glass, modelling pastes, and layered surfaces build a tactile shoreline. The textures shift from smooth to coarse, from delicate to raw — inviting the hand to wander.

Embedded into the surface is the Braille message:

⠺⠊⠎⠓⠀⠽⠕⠥⠀⠺⠑⠗⠑⠀⠓⠑⠗⠑
(wish you were here)

A simple postcard phrase, reimagined as a sensory greeting — not only seen, but read through touch. The Braille was painstakingly built layer by layer using a handmade stencil and adhesive, becoming the emotional heart of the work.

Behind the canvas, a built-in Bluetooth speaker carries the sound of the sea. Waves can be heard softly breaking, completing the illusion of presence. The viewer does not merely observe the coast — they inhabit it.

White and blue remain central to the piece — colours of absence and depth, silence and immersion. Together they create harmony while allowing texture and sensation to lead.

Sensory Faculty is one of my smallest works, yet perhaps the most intimate. It represents a turning point in my practice — a step beyond image into experience. It is not only a painting to look at. It is a painting to approach, to feel, to listen to — and to connect with.

Art does not have to remain at a distance. It can reach back.