February 2025
I am a local Fiveways artist, and usually describe myself as a contemporary
abstract painter. My abstract work is inspired by the aesthetic of the place
where colour, memory and landscape meet, and how it feels to be submerged
within them. My paintings are often influenced by and associated with poetry.
I show widely across Sussex, in London, Ireland and this year, in Vienna and,
fingers crossed, in Rekjavik. But this work is just for my local community.
Emerging gratefully from a period of illness, I am feeling bolder about showing
work that is more personal.
The large painting in the window is more typical of the work I usually show –
‘Watermelon Snow’ refers to the way the fleeting blossom glides as it falls,
silently like snow, pink as watermelon, against those crisp blue early summer
skies.
The other work in this window is a mixture of work I have done quietly, and for
myself, a reflection on the refugee experience, on solitude and journeys.
Anglo-Saxon poetry about solitude and community is built into the collages,
that reflect on the visceral experience of life to those who lived at that time,
wrapped in cloth and fur, travelling to new places in wooden boats and great
tides, looking up to the stars.
The set of four paintings is based on and titled by a line from a letter by Emily
Dickinson: ‘I am out with lanterns, looking for myself’, a line which resonated
deeply with me.
The other two longer canvases ponder the experience of refugees as they wait
at the red lights of the system, broken and separated from their culture and
family, alone in new lives, and new communities.
I am a proud artist member of ArtCan, an international, non-profit arts
organisation supporting diverse range of artists across the world.
I will be adding new paintings to the window throughout the month, and also
details of workshops I’ll be running this Spring in drawing, collage,
watercolours and colour.
