Artist Statement

Community holds my life together—through yoga, friendship groups, my stepfamily, bands I’ve been part of, shared living, and childcare. It’s within these spaces that my ideas take shape. I paint people I connect with and experiences I live through as a starting point: motherhood, friendship, and, most recently, step-motherhood.

I aim to capture a likeness—although not necessarily perfection or photorealism—as there is something magical in recognition. I hope the paintings feel emotionally direct rather than idealised. Alongside the paintings, I’m interested in building experiences around the work. For years, I kept painting, wellbeing, and events separate; only recently have they started to come together into something more focused.

My latest body of work explores step-motherhood and plays with outdated representations of stepmothers in culture and fairy tales, alongside the often hidden role they occupy within family life and society. I want to give stepmothers representation with more complexity, humanity, humour, and visibility. I’ve been moved by how many amazing women within my social circle have freely come forward to sit for the work, wanting to be seen, recognised, and celebrated.

I’m drawn to forming a person out of paint. The process—someone sitting for me, then taking drawings and photos back into the studio—still feels exciting. I usually start in charcoal or oil, often adding pastel or house paint, working with whatever’s at hand. If I don’t have a sitter, I draw myself or my daughter asleep most days.

I can walk around a gallery and feel nothing—and then suddenly, bam, I’m crying in front of a painting. I love how artists can make work that feels as relevant today as it did 200 years ago. There’s something about the human condition, morality plays, and strong female protagonists that gets me every time.