Which 3 words best define how you would like your art to be perceived?

COMPELLING / EXPRESSIVE / SERENE

What creative challenge have you faced and overcome that has transformed your art practice?

To keep going; to keep making and exploring; to know that bad days are just a waypoint in a longer process, and tomorrow will be different.

What tools do you use as part of the preliminary stages of your process?

For paper cuts and collage I work intuitively, spreading paper fragments across the table and seeing what catches my eye and what colours sit together. For work on canvas I tend to sketch ideas before starting to paint. I love sketchbooks and find looking back over old ones really interesting. Recently I have been sketching on large sheets of paper and I also like to draw on an iPad for speed of working out ideas and compositions.

How do you usually start an art session - any habits or rituals ?

I start with a coffee and an intention for the day. If I have a commission to work on I will focus on that or if it is work for myself I will see where the mood takes me. I tend to leave something from the day before to finish so I have something to come back to. I find it makes starting easier. I go to the studio pretty much every day unless I have admin to do. I don’t have a computer or wifi in my studio as I find it too distracting.

How do you deal with doubts and fears?

In the most general sense, I know that if I didn’t have doubts or fears, it would be because I wasn’t working with my whole self and wasn’t making myself vulnerable - so I’m glad of them, in theory, even though they’re uncomfortable to experience. I try not to take rejection or knock backs personally, and actually I destroy a lot of work so that insulates me, in the sense that I have no harsher critic than myself. I am making myself stop doing that, though. I find that when I come back to work that I hated, sometimes months later, it’s not what I thought; often there is the beginning of something useful.

With what intentions do you infuse your art making?

Human connections, how we sit together or fail to connect. Reworking and finding new from old, looking at life through a different lens. I love colour and the element of touch. I want my work to have a feeling of lightness about it even if the feeling is intense. I’d like to imbue a sense of calm or serenity. Sometimes work is an abstracted view of something I have seen or wish to.

Where do you draw your color inspiration from ?

I have a long held love of colour charts. I love how those little coloured tiles sit together. I find films inspiring, the colour palettes within beautiful cinematography has me reaching for the pause button to soak it in. I have a board on pinterest of colour combinations which appeal to me. From a photograph of washing hanging on a line, to a Irving Penn food photograph, to an interior with bright furniture.

What brilliant piece of advice were you given on your creative journey and would be happy to share?

Nothing is worthless if it’s true to you.

What do you like about your work & what do you dislike about it?

Certain pieces I love and hold close. Usually there is something about the colour combinations and the balance. Work I like less is when I can see the energy is off, that it feels flat, even if no one else can.