ARTIST STATEMENT I named this series ‘Joy of Discovery’ as I became very happy when I made these artworks. They were created during the first half of 2009. This was an interesting stage of my career when I was trying to assert my own artistic voice. I found it interesting to experiment in a free and playful way with different media. My artistic practice is the way I explore my thoughts and feelings about human life. The artworks in this series are my visual interpretation of certain abstract concepts. It was very liberating to experiment with oils, resins, alkyds, thinners and acrylics to test out the different techniques and then to make further explorations with the textures and visual effects that could be achieved. When I made these paintings I was searching for new ideas as I wanted to develop a modern style of oil painting that could be recognised as having its roots in my Turkish tradition. In 2007/8 I had developed my Turkish Weave (T-weave) style by using sgraffito technique to engrave the forms of old Turkish writings into oil paint. In this experimental series I wanted to find new ways to express myself through the medium of paint. I got the idea that I might be able to find a way to adapt the fluid forms of Ebru into an oil painting medium. Ebru, also known as Turkish Marbling, is a traditional water based technique. I experimented with ways to produce a similar fluidity of form with a modern abstract painting technique using oils. This discovery formed the basis of my future works as the Turkish Whirling (T-whirling) technique is the style that I take forward in the next stage of my artistic journey.