How did you first start painting? Was there anyone or anything that inspired it?

I have loved creating art since I was a young child, it was always a natural form of expression for me and a way for me to process thoughts and emotions.   I started painting as a teen and returned to it again after having children because I find painting is a more accommodating artistic medium when life gets busy, and for me, it allows the most freedom in my expression. As I grow older I find it essential for my mental well-being and it brings me such deep satisfaction and joy!

Your work is a celebration of contrasts. How do you manage to find beauty through balance?

Contrast and proportion make art, design and dressing incredibly interesting! I find the best way of finding that balance is through play and experimentation. Playing around with the elements and then letting your eye guide you to the most interesting and harmonious version makes it feel balanced. Also, I enjoy removing as much detail as possible without losing that balance.

You take a multidimensional, mixed-media approach to creation. Do you practice this in other areas of your creativity – getting dressed, perhaps?

Yes, I see a direct link between my approach to creating artwork, creating interiors and dressing. When we seek to understand ourselves more we can recognize the patterns in what we are attracted to and how we might choose things. For me, a lot of it has to do with finding balance through juxtaposition. So texture, colour and proportion play a big part in putting together an outfit. For example, I love mixing suiting with a raffia bag. Something very structured with something more relaxed and whimsical. The difference in textures and the unexpected combinations just make it more interesting.

Texture is abundant throughout your work – is this something that unfolds naturally or is it something you focus on as you create?

The texture in my work started quite accidentally but ended up being one of the most meaningful parts of my work. I was trying to return to painting after a long pause, and I disliked everything I painted, everything! I would paint on the same canvas over and over, and I was never satisfied with the work I was producing. A couple of years later I pulled out those old canvases that naturally had layers and layers of hardened paint underneath, but this time I was able to translate onto the canvas what I had hoped to express. When the figures appeared the layers underneath ended up being quite symbolic. They were like the layers that we carry from life, its joys, disappointments, failures, hurt, and change; these experiences all make up the parts of who we are at a moment in time. And that’s what these portraits are. They capture a moment but if you look at them closely you see so much more beyond that.

Now that I’ve run out of those old canvases, I create those layers before I begin the portrait. But the base layers are just as important as the painting on top so I spend quite a bit of time preparing the canvas as part of my creative process.