artist statement

My practice has evolved from traditional painting on canvas towards shaped paintings and, more recently, freestanding works that exist between painting, object and installation. Through walking, observation, gathering and material experimentation, I explore the shifting relationships between body, material, space and time.

The work often begins outside the studio. I am drawn to textures, patterns, lines and structures found in natural and urban environments: tree bark, lichen, shadows, tidal sand formations, weathered surfaces and eroded structures. These signs of growth, decay and transformation inform my choice of materials and my approach to making.

My process is physical and intuitive. Working primarily on the floor, I paint on loose fabric using my hands, body and plants as tools. I walk across surfaces, trace bodily contours, layer and crush materials, and incorporate pine needles, branches and other gathered matter. Through processes of accumulation and removal, I build tactile surfaces and free-flowing forms. I combine pigments, oil paint, clay, sand, rust, dyes, bleach and organic materials. I am particularly interested in materials that crack, weather and transform over time. Their instability becomes part of the work, reflecting vulnerability, impermanence and continual change.

In recent works, painting has expanded beyond the flat surface into sculptural and spatial forms. Freestanding structures supported by branches, unstretched fabrics, reshaped frames, installations made from found objects, and experiments with concrete casts developed from shadow drawings in sand all extend the work into its surroundings. These forms create changing relationships between the artwork, viewer and exhibition space.

Alongside painting and sculptural work, I make frottage drawings by rubbing graphite onto paper or canvas placed against natural and human-made surfaces. Rather than representing specific places, these works record touch, texture, movement and physical encounters with place. Across my practice, making becomes an ongoing dialogue between control and unpredictability, through which I explore transformation, interconnection and the traces produced by our contact with the world around us.