Guerrilla Garden 2023 FRAMED (M)

This painting is inspired by the 'Guerrilla' gardens that people have planted on the footpaths in my local area. I am painting intuitively here, meaning I have no fixed plans when I start, but am rather more interested in expressive, painterly marks and allowing myself to enter a flow state and be lead by the painting.

Plants and botanical forms have long been a source of inspiration to me, from my beginnings as a textile designer in the 90s through to my current painting practice. I find purpose and meaning identifying, sniffing, touching and sometimes (if it’s hanging over a fence and it’s dark) swiping a sprig for further investigation back in the studio. I like to draw and paint from observation first to acquaint myself with my specimen, and then work purely from memory and imagination, slowly paring back detail with each incarnation until I am relying purely on intuition and imagination and am no longer concerned with accurately representing my subject.

This bright multi layered, textural painting would make a fantastic statement on the wall of your home.

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I’ve been making art for most of my life, though the path here hasn’t been completely straightforward. What was meant to be a one-year trip from the UK to Sydney in 1994 somehow turned into a permanent move, and Australia has felt like home ever since.
A lot of my work begins outdoors; walking, noticing plants growing through fences, strange colour combinations in nature, or bringing home flowers and cuttings to paint in the studio. Painting has always been a way for me to slow down and pay attention. It’s where I feel most myself.
Before returning to painting full-time in 2015, I worked across surface pattern design, printmaking and graphic design, and those influences still shape the way I paint today; through colour, rhythm, line and composition. I’m also deeply inspired by the simplicity and spontaneity of Chinese and Japanese ink painting, calligraphy and woodblock prints, though my work has gradually evolved into something much looser and more contemporary over time.
Since returning to full-time practice, my work has been exhibited in solo and group shows across Australia and selected as a finalist in prizes including the Calleen Art Award, Lethbridge Prize, Bluethumb Art Prize and the National Contemporary Watercolour Prize. My paintings and prints have also been licensed onto homewares and collected internationally.
I still feel genuinely grateful that I get to spend my days painting, and I hope that sense of joy, calm and curiosity finds its way into the work itself.