I am investigating the materiality of paint through addition, dissolution, and subtraction in the painting process in order to research transformation. This is achieved through controlled experiments with paint on canvas in relation to its exposure to various weather conditions and gesture. These (semi) autonomous material events reveal paradoxes and tensions between the structured and the organised, formlessness and disorder. The elimination of artistic agency and exposure to environmental forces opens the work up to randomness and dissipation but at the same time it creates a universal symbolic and ideographic language. My position is one of literally standing back and letting external forces enact the dissolution of the painting. I reclaim and intervene as an act of collaboration, thereby navigating the territory between intentional and unintended outcomes and the role of limited authorial control. The work itself becomes the site of traces of an experience, a document of dialogue with environmental forces, drawing out new connections in the viewer’s experience.