artist statement
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My family were all artists and musicians so a love for creating was nurtured in me from a very young age. My Mum tells me she could see an artistry in my scribbles when I was only 18 months old (though perhaps that was my loving mother's strong bias!).
I have sweet memories of my Grandma showing me books on famous abstract artists and getting the crayons and paper out, telling me to "just draw what you feel". Holding that the highest form of art came from an inner place that existed beyond objective reality, she taught me how to access my imagination by drawing from my dreams. An advocate of making bold gestural marks, she believed in speed and spontaneity as a way of promoting free intuitive expression. She also believed that “there is no such thing as a mistake.” If I made what I ‘thought’ was a mistake, she’d tell me to use it to my advantage - to “make something out of it”. It follows that my grandmother was a seminal influence in my artistic development. Indeed, my whole family was. I was surrounded by people who celebrated abstraction and the simple clean lines of a minimalist aesthetic.
Often unwell during my childhood, drawing was of great comfort to me when I was too ill to do other things. Unable to even hold a pencil for a time, I'll never forget the incomparable joy of being well enough to draw again. My lifelong battle with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome has meant that there is a certain frailty in my experience of my body and consequently my life, something I believe is given compensation in the overall boldness and strength of my artwork.
For me painting is something I do from a focussed, almost meditative state - I just paint and go with the flow. Rather than being consciously directed, it’s an intuitive process I move through until I get the feeling that the painting or drawing I'm working on is complete.
Painting my current collection, influences from music, collage, scuplture, constellations, ocean life, were all in the melting pot. As I painted, I just let it flow quickly and spontaneously. Only afterwards did I reflect on the shapes, symbols and references that had been given form on paper or canvas.
It is a great joy for me to create. I take wonderment in the process - a subconscious process I don't fully understand. I have heard it said, that perhaps the artist in his/her artistic practice taps into the realms of the spiritual and therefore the inexplicable. Whatever the truth is, I find the act of painting soothing and grounding, especially when life feels chaotic. I delight in the fact that when I finish a painting or some other form of artistic expression, something of interest or beauty exists in the world that didn't exist before I started.
Thank you for taking the time to view my work. I hope what I’ve painted helps you take pause, moves you and provokes you to your own inner journey.
I have sweet memories of my Grandma showing me books on famous abstract artists and getting the crayons and paper out, telling me to "just draw what you feel". Holding that the highest form of art came from an inner place that existed beyond objective reality, she taught me how to access my imagination by drawing from my dreams. An advocate of making bold gestural marks, she believed in speed and spontaneity as a way of promoting free intuitive expression. She also believed that “there is no such thing as a mistake.” If I made what I ‘thought’ was a mistake, she’d tell me to use it to my advantage - to “make something out of it”. It follows that my grandmother was a seminal influence in my artistic development. Indeed, my whole family was. I was surrounded by people who celebrated abstraction and the simple clean lines of a minimalist aesthetic.
Often unwell during my childhood, drawing was of great comfort to me when I was too ill to do other things. Unable to even hold a pencil for a time, I'll never forget the incomparable joy of being well enough to draw again. My lifelong battle with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome has meant that there is a certain frailty in my experience of my body and consequently my life, something I believe is given compensation in the overall boldness and strength of my artwork.
For me painting is something I do from a focussed, almost meditative state - I just paint and go with the flow. Rather than being consciously directed, it’s an intuitive process I move through until I get the feeling that the painting or drawing I'm working on is complete.
Painting my current collection, influences from music, collage, scuplture, constellations, ocean life, were all in the melting pot. As I painted, I just let it flow quickly and spontaneously. Only afterwards did I reflect on the shapes, symbols and references that had been given form on paper or canvas.
It is a great joy for me to create. I take wonderment in the process - a subconscious process I don't fully understand. I have heard it said, that perhaps the artist in his/her artistic practice taps into the realms of the spiritual and therefore the inexplicable. Whatever the truth is, I find the act of painting soothing and grounding, especially when life feels chaotic. I delight in the fact that when I finish a painting or some other form of artistic expression, something of interest or beauty exists in the world that didn't exist before I started.
Thank you for taking the time to view my work. I hope what I’ve painted helps you take pause, moves you and provokes you to your own inner journey.