About a million years ago, I got an A for Art A-Level. Most of the stuff I produced was classical drawing and oil painting and I didn’t ever really like anything I created. I went on to study languages at university and worked for many years as a picture editor, selecting and commissioning photography for national newspapers and magazines. Then I got a job as a Mum and did Mum things like wipe bottoms and cut finger nails and make packed lunches.
I’m still a Mum, but in 2019 I started drawing again and am gradually beginning to like some of the stuff I produce. Most of my work now is drawn from observation rather than photographs, often using sketches drawn. I enjoy the spontaneity of a sketch and the challenge to capture what I see, sometimes in a very short time. Collage monoprints seem to be my medium of choice at the moment; I love how I have to work really quickly and confidently with the monoprint as I have only one chance, and then be creative and play around with the collage itself. This also allows me to experiment with composition which, perhaps because I used to work in photography, I like to do during the picture making process, rather than at the beginning.

I was on Sky’s Portrait Artist of the Year in 2022 doing a collage portrait of jazz pianist Alexis Ffrench; it was incredibly nerve-racking, and so much fun.

As for influences, I’m in awe of Alice Neel for her raw, imperfect people, Richard Diebenkorn for his dramatic ink drawings and Fairfield Porter for his flat shapes and depiction of sun-drenched light. I also spent quite a bit of time in Germany falling in love with Albrecht Dürer, Käthe Kollwitz, August Sander and Otto Dix.

I’ve had a massive crush on David Hockney since the age of sixteen.

Winner of the Foxlowe Arts Centre Award (2023)