Bren West’s work explores the human experience and our relationship to the environment through material experimentation. Working primarily with charcoal in powder, stick, and liquid forms, she sometimes layers it over paint for vibrant contrasts. She chooses raw canvas and textured surfaces for their ability to disrupt control, allowing each piece to evolve through both intention and happy accidents. Her smaller studies, created in ink or graphite, demonstrate the same fascination with mark-making as evidence of being. 

Her imagery exists between worlds: figurative works pulse with emotional depth, while abstracted landscapes shimmer with memory and atmosphere. This duality reflects life’s constant tensions, between what lasts and what fades, between careful planning and beautiful chaos. Whether creating a smudged portrait or a weathered terrain, her process becomes a physical meditation on the raw act of creation. 

Her Series: Interplay, examines how humans and nature intertwine. The works play with shadow and light, control and surrender, artist and medium. In these pieces, limbs become branches, faces mirror landscapes, and the charcoal itself - burnt wood mixed with water - acts as both medium and message, embodying how people and the natural world shape each other. 

Her charcoal portraits showcase bold, expressive marks that capture raw humanity. By working on both raw untreated canvases and primed surfaces, she emphasizes the immediacy of her art, inviting viewers to consider life’s fleeting moments. Whether creating large figurative works or dreamlike abstract landscapes, West consistently explores connection, the passage of time, and the stories materials can tell. 

West’s art continues to engage audiences drawn to its emotional depth and thoughtful themes. Her work encourages viewers to reflect on their own limits, their capacity for growth, and their role in the ever-changing dance between people and the world around them.