How It all Started
I graduated from Central St Martin's College of Art and Design with a degree in textiles design. My speciality was print making. Hand painting screens gave my work a loose, painterly and expressive immediacy. After college, I took my textiles and painting knowledge to work on feature films in costume departments for over ten years. Only a few years ago, I finally returned to my first loves: painting and photography. I set up my own art studio near my home in Crystal Palace where I now work.
I must listen to music
Since having a child, I have always been on a timer, I always have somewhere else to be and always have so much to do, so it’s nice to switch off and block everything else out. I have found that once I have started a project listening to a particular album or playlist, I must listen to the same songs over and over. If I change my music it puts me in a totally different headspace and my artwork changes course when I don’t want it to. That’s a lot of months of listening to the same thing. A new set of songs comes with a new set of paintings.
My process
My collections most often are inspired by and start with a series of my own photographs which capture beauty and simplicity in the human world, quite often showing the stark contrast between harsh, angular industrial landscapes juxtaposed by the uncertainty and ever-changing nature around it. Then distilling compositions down to their raw, abstract, engaging interpretation through mixed media, collage and paint. The simplicity of my aesthetic belies a rigorous and frenetic work ethic which prevents me from 'overthinking' and stifling my mark making. My thought process becomes a stream of conscious decisions flowing from one to another; pushing each idea and concept into the next.
The viewers response
I much prefer to listen to them telling me what they think rather than me telling them what I have painted. I suggest that it can be whatever they see. I get more excited when the viewer sees something in the painting, how it might bring back memories and feelings, and what it has evoked in their own creative imagination. I’m happy not to tell the viewer how it started if they don’t ask.