People like to say that "they were born that way",
& I am pretty sure that I was born a messy artist.
When I was little I was full mischief, I loved to watch insects & make mud pies and most of all be a grub.
Not much has changed, except that now I don't make my pies with mud.
& one of the things that I really love about being an artist is that feeling of being free, on one level it's the same feeling as being that 5 yo in the garden staring at ants with your feet covered in mud. The other side though to painting, from the start to the half way mark, is often like pushing mud up hill.
& though it's stressful, I love this part too.
My work is full of empathy, & it's structured around the many things in this world that make me feel sad. Why I paint this I can't really describe, it's just a part of my make up. I like to romaticise the sadness.
& personally, I see my girls as quirky, real yet unreal, and full of the thoughts that swim around in my head.
Technically, over the years I have played with different mediums.
When I picked up painting again in my early twenty's I started with oils, then following the suggestion from a friend, I moved onto watercolours.
Watercolours proved as a breakthrough in my work, and this is when my series of girls really began. From watercolour I moved back into acrylic so that I could paint on a large scale and in a quick succession.
The black outlining often used in comic books and stained glass has always been something that I am drawn to. I use black outlining to enforce the general mood and undertone of my paintings, along with creating movement and direction.
Fish,stars, a few numbers and circles often appear along with my girls, and these symbols are how I tie my own meaning into the painting. They are my way of reminding myself, who or what I was painting about, & are a little along the lines of the spooky and quirky subconcious left of field.