Heather Perera - Painter and Photographer

Heather Perera is a self-taught artist working in film photography and watercolor — two mediums bound by slowness, softness, and the quiet acceptance of what cannot be controlled.

Photography came first: a way to observe the world gently, to hold a moment without needing to fix or explain it. It was a practice in stillness, in noticing. Over time, watercolor entered her life in a much different season — during recovery — and brought with it a new kind of release. What alcohol once silenced, painting helped her hear with tenderness.

Watercolor asked something different: to let go. The pigment moves as it will, carried by the fluid nature of water — unpredictable, patient, honest. Both practices, in their own way, taught her to surrender: to imperfection, to process, to presence.

Perera’s work is rooted in the belief that healing is quiet and deeply personal. Through film and watercolor, she explores the spaces between control and release, pain and peace, memory and moment. Each piece is an offering — an invitation into stillness, softness, and the quiet power of beginning again