Creating work across two mediums; painting and lino print, I am heavily influenced by animals, nature, folklore and fairy tales.

The animal characters that I paint all have names, as the piece builds, layer on layer, as I get closer to the end, I will sit back and have a few names in mind and just see which one resonates more with who is looking back at me on the paper…’Shirley’ the turkey, ‘Audrey’ the alpaca’, ‘Geoffrey’ the giraffe, ‘Peggy’ the goat and so on.

I find that if I’ve been painting one of my animal characters or an abstract landscape, that I need to have a break from the brushes and create a new lino or rework one of my old ones, it is a very therapeutic process – carving, inking the lino, and then hand pressing the piece.

I love learning new ways of working, whether it be the paper I print or paint on, new inks, what I like a piece to look like – maybe a bit looser or utilising more of the negative space, tools I work with, it is all one big learning experience and I love it!

I am interested in ensuring where I can that I use recycled, compostable, biodegradable products and repurposing materials which would otherwise go to waste.