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My paintings explore the mingling of joy and tension within family life. Working in domestic settings, I focus on themes of interiority, separation and connection, presence and absence, and the elusive, fleeting moment. I use painting as a way to express the innately multivalent responses that exist even within the most intimate relationships.

After completing my MA at City & Guilds in 2016, I rather unexpectedly became a mother. Over the next decade, working mostly in soft and oil pastels at home, I drew inspiration in the first instance from my photography, especially of my family. The resulting drawings became a means of unravelling specific and subconscious memories, ideas and impressions. Recently, I have developed a more intuitive, sensory and essential language in my painting, alongside a way of working with colour that bypasses reason and deliberation.

I have long been fascinated by the philosophy common to many Eastern traditions: that the apparent separation between ourselves and the world is a construct of the mind, and that everything is fundamentally interconnected. This interest finds its way into my work, figures and their environments are afforded equal presence, coming together as parts of a unified whole. I try to remain receptive to the painting as it unfolds, trusting intuition over analysis.

For me, painting is not about imposing an idea, but discovering what emerges through the process.