Özlem Thompson was born in Istanbul, and although interested in art from a very early age, she obtained an undergraduate degree in biology and completed her master’s degree in botany with a thesis on the subject of ‘Exotic Plants and Their Usage in Industrial Design’.
After graduating she decided to listen to her inner voice and concentrate on her art, making it her career focus. She moved to Belsize Park, North London, where she works and lives in the same flat where Mondrian used to paint before the start of the Second World War. While drawing was always something she enjoyed, Özlem realised that she wanted to make her mark as a painter. Influenced by some of the great artists such as Mondrian, Miro and Kandinsky, she began creating large scale acrylic pieces, using vibrant colours. Her background in biology and organic structures became a strong influence on her work, and the key to her process is the abstraction of forms of nature to effectively describe the concepts that flow from her subconscious.
While she views her work as a reflection of how she sees and interprets the world, the impromptu flow of strong colours and shapes is intended to effect ‘user-defined’ feelings and impressions, and to facilitate a wide range of interpretation and interaction between the viewer and the artist: Merging intellectual concepts with visual ideas, using bold colours to express feelings, and mixing real and imagined organic structures with one another. This creates the impression of a dream-like world, a vivid explosion of nature meeting fantasy.
Above all colours satisfy her more than anything and she hopes to share this feeling with the viewer. Her work has been well received and her recognition is growing worldwide.
Self-taught or art school?
I would probably be considered mostly self-taught, but I feel that defining the meaning of formal or informal education to artistic development is more complex. Since I was a small child, I made art in various different media and I was later encouraged greatly by my high-school art teacher, who felt I displayed my own original sense of style and technique. As a Biology student in university I took classes in the History of Art and also Botanical Illustration, making lots of drawings of microscopic lifeforms, and wrote the thesis, ‘Exotic Plants and their usage in Industrial Design’ for my Master’s Degree in Botany at Istanbul University in collaboration with the department of Industrial Design at Istanbul Technical University.
So although I feel my own journey as an artist in discovering the concepts and techniques that serve my own talent and creativity to the fullest degree are vital, I also owe so much to the invaluable and kind support and encouragement of many, on my path to become an artist.
If you could own one work of art what would it be?
I love the work of Wassily Kandinsky, his wonderfully expressive shapes and colours always seem to strike a perfect balance. One painting I think I would treasure in my home is ‘Around the Circle’, painted in 1940.
How would you describe your style?
Colourful, joyful, natural, imaginary, abstract, dream-like! I am a multi-disciplinary artist who tries to paint things the way I see and imagine them, I love to mix the colours of the natural world with my perceptions and feelings, while including imperfection and incompleteness, reflecting the abstraction of the reality of our being and environment in this universe. I love most of all colours and shapes, and how they make us feel.
Can you tell us about your artistic process?
My art is a vehicle for my subconscious and helps me connect with and understand the universe. In terms of a process, I just go with a rough idea that I have and once I start to paint it’s as if my hand takes the lead, the lines and colour areas take their own shape and before long a new world on the canvas is developing! It is the best way to discover my inner self and also share that with others.
Is narrative important within your work?
I often wonder about the possibility of life on other planets, other worlds and different dimensions and realities. Ideas such as these often enter into my artworks. I feel that it is most interesting to use the two-dimensional medium of painting, made by human hands, to explore concepts that one would even need, for example, eleven dimensions to realise! Most of all I want us all to use our imagination, which is more powerful than we can realise, to elevate our minds from earthly concerns.
Who are your favourite artists and why?
There are so many to mention but to choose a few: Kandinsky, because of his ground-breaking use of colours, Mondrian, because his progression to total abstraction, which seems so coherent now, was totally innovative. I especially feel inspired by Hilma Af Klint, and her delicate use of colour with geometrical and cosmic symbols which was so ahead of her time, and Joan Miró.
What or who inspires your art?
I am fascinated with quantum physics and the universe, while as a trained biologist I am of course very inspired by nature on earth and its orms and processes. Also as a Turkish woman who grew up surrounded by oriental culture, art and music I feel those things play a part in the aesthetics of my multi-disciplinary approach.
Where’s your studio and what’s it like?
Today I live and paint in what was Mondrian’s studio in London between 1938 and 1940, in Belsize Park. At that time there were many artists and creatives living in the area, and they helped him to move here from Paris. For me, it is a wonderful coincidence that I ended up living and working here. Sometimes I think about Mondrian’s quest to find harmony between the material and spiritual worlds and wonder if the walls and windows and atoms in his studio that observed his artistic process are now observing mine. His works were groundbreaking and had a huge effect on art. My experience living here gives me hope that anyone can achieve something of artistic importance for humanity.
Do you have any studio rituals?
I love Turkish coffee and classical music!
What are you working on currently?
Right now I am working on my ‘Galaxy’ series, in which I explore fantastic life-forms and energies as I imagine them in far-flung worlds.
Where can we buy your art?
You can visit my website and Instagram profile:
https://ozlemsorluthompson.com/ and https://www.instagram.com/ozlemsorluthompson/
And right now, you can buy my ‘Flowers’, series over at:
I will also be featured in various online platforms and art publications around the world next year, such as Art Folio (USA), Gallerima (Sweden), Capsule Book (Australia), among others to be confirmed!