Following a degree in Art History and English at York University, UK, I trained as an easel paintings’ conservator at the Courtauld Institute. As a post-graduate student I was part of an international study into the red lake pigments of van Gogh, and since graduating in 2004 I have worked as an artist, conservator and researcher into paintings and collections. I am particularly interested in the history of making, and in the human relationship with materials and the natural world in the creation of art and telling of stories. I hold an MA in Arts and Ecology, and my work focusses on the interwoven narratives of the human and more-than-human through time.
Deeply rooted in the specific materiality of place, in my wider practice I predominantly use a combination of drawing, writing and colour-making as intimate means of understanding the land and life around me. Borrowing Donna Haraway’s concept of ‘sympoiesis’ or a ‘making with,’ through the use of natural foraged materials the work becomes collaborative and relational. Often exploring themes of species loss and interdependence, it seeks to return agency to the more-than-human and convey an equality of individual lived experience between species. Making and writing become visceral arts of recognition and remembrance; acts of care, and quiet resistance within the ‘violent unmaking’ of life in the Anthropocene.
I am an elected member of the Society of Graphic Fine Art and serve on the council. I am also an invited member of the Wilderness Art Collective. I have exhibited throughout the UK and my work is held in public and private collections. Recent and forthcoming publications include Dark Mountain, Wild Roof Journal, and the Center for Humans and Nature. I live in Devon.
