Painter & Illustrator

 What I do

Painter and Illustrator

Painting is my way of slowing down and having a mindful conversation with a fleeting moment. In my illustrative work my subject matter varies from visually striking people, close-ups of skin, beautiful flowers, fabric. I photograph people whose style I find captivating; part of their spark and essence is poured into their choice of clothing.  Often the photographs I work from are a quick snapshots of a moment I want to hold onto.  By spending time recreating this in watercolour, the medium forces me to approach the image slowly and with curiosity, break down the image into many layers.

Having worked as a prop painter for the past 8 years, I have honed my skills for creating effects such as marble, stone and wood graining. It’s a varied, tactile job which exists within a dynamic environment. As with my personal work, I like having the opportunity to slow down and really focus and look at the world, recreating effects such as fish scales on silicone or the veins in marble for period columns on Hulu’s ‘The Great’ and painting decorative florals on furniture for ‘Paddington in Peru’. This experience of painting has broadened my skill-set and has allowed my personal work to stretch and by osmosis be influenced by everything from prosthetic painting to decorative and mural painting.

Recently I have been fascinated by painting flowers, capturing arrangements and flower’s micro details. Nature invites us to look at it, confronting our relationship with the world and our precarious balance which is tipping in a worrying direction. My recent work has led me to start flower-painting workshops, creating mindful spaces in florists and nature reserves where people can work from life, distilling nature down to the fundamentals of light, colour and shape.  I have also begun painting people’s wedding bouquets as a way of ‘preserving’ them. They’re imbued with the client’s deeply personal yet fleeting memory of that occasion.