Painting and drawing are  my way of seeing and of making space in this fast world. My aim is to see my subject — often the familiar or the ordinary — afresh and to find beauty and grace in the commonplace. In paint, I find  that everyday items can become jewels or talismans,  holding the miracle of small fleeting moments. 

 

I work in oils and my preference is to hand-prepare linen panels, making my own size, gesso, half-oil primer and ground. I particularly like using old, handloom cloth, which always has a more interesting weave, the work of the maker subtly apparent. These old, slow, tactile methods of preparation become part of my paintings and I find the materiality both important and comforting.

 

In 2008, with three children under 4, I signed up to a local oil painting class. Three hours of time for myself in the week. I was instantly transported back to my art school days in Falmouth and it felt like a homecoming – the colour mixing, the smell of turps, the hush of concentration in the room, the grubby sink and the creaking easels. I loved it all. I began with a painting of my daughter's first shoes; claret-red Mary Janes with metal  buckles. I grabbed them before class without a great deal of thought but  because I liked the colour and the shapes the straps made. That pair of small, red shoes set me in a direction  that I continue to love and explore: the everyday domestic things that surround us; the stuff of childhood; and the small, ever-changing landscapes that come and go through the days and the seasons in our kitchen.

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I made a makeshift studio at home and painted whenever I could. A few years later, I had the good fortune to be introduced to Saied Dai's weekly life-drawing class. And so began a seven-year-long training in draughtsmanship, observation, translation and, most of all, thinking. It was an exceptional education which continues to guide me every day. 

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In 2016 I rented a proper studio and two years later, I held my first show, alongside the ceramicist Jessie Alcaraz. Since then I have exhibited with Green & Stone (London) Moorwood Art (Bruton), Seed (Frome), Andelli Art (Wells), David Simon Contemporary (then in Bath), and Highgate Art (London).