Veal is a romantic, working across 2D media; painting, drawing and photography. Her work has a beautiful yet mournful quality, exploring time passing and the traces that are left behind. The vapor trail of an aeroplane or the first blossoms of spring... Her work has a bittersweet quality – capturing a moment in time and mourning it’s immediate loss. These are existential reflections, a longing to capture the moment and in so doing facing the poignant realization that it has already passed.

Cecilia Veal's inspirations are varied, spanning contemporary fiction, poetry and fashion photography - where she finds the representation of women particularly inspiring. Influence is drawn from painters Elizabeth Peyton, Chantal Joffe and Marlene Dumas amongst others. By working experimentally and mixing her media - working in both acrylic and oils, she plays with the resistance and submission of the paint. This technique is symbolic, in some areas the subjects lose their edges; as often women do in life, whilst in others, the paint resists and forms its own unique patina. There are areas where the image is highly resolved and others where paint runs free, being true to its own unique qualities.