London-based painter Ozlem Thompson makes vibrant abstract paintings that move between science, memory and joy, and her newest body of work marks a clear step forward. Her Seraphita series, made in 2026, takes its cue from the mystical world of Balzac's Seraphita, using the story's themes of duality and transformation to explore energy, consciousness and the unseen. The paintings combine colour, mixed media and open space with a freedom she describes as an important evolution in her visual language, creating worlds that sit somewhere between the cosmic, the mystical and the imagined.

Thompson's route to painting was unusual. She studied biology before becoming an artist, and the discipline still shapes how she looks at the world. She was fascinated by the microscopic world, and by plant morphology in particular: the complexity, patterns, colours and geometry hidden in the smallest natural forms. Science taught her to look closely, she says, while art lets her interpret what she sees beyond its physical structure. She sees a shared visual language between the microscopic world and the vastness of the universe, and that connection between the visible and the invisible continues to drive her work.

Her early life in Istanbul also left a lasting mark. The intense colours, brilliant sunlight and reflections across the city remain present in her paintings, and she credits her grandmother, whose effortless knitting showed her that art can be spontaneous and natural rather than heavily planned. More recent experiences have fed the work too: visits to the Munch Museum in Oslo and to Matisse's house reminded her of the power of a personal visual language, and she now works in a London studio once occupied by Piet Mondrian and Ben Nicholson, a connection she finds quietly inspiring.

Thompson is currently working on a new series of large-scale paintings, experimenting with different mediums and pushing her compositions further. Working bigger gives her room to immerse herself in the process and build expansive worlds for viewers to step into. Above all, she wants people encountering her paintings for the first time to feel joy: a sense of happiness, wonder and optimism, and a reminder of the beauty and small miracles of everyday life.