Artist Statement
Water has taught me that beauty and violence are inseparable.
I create abstract paintings born from 30 years of experiencing water: photographing it as an editorial photographer, kayaking, diving, and walking beside rivers, lakes, and seas. I know what it's like kayaking down wild whitewater, reading the river's moods and movements. Get it right and you glide across the eddies and waves, crossing the river back and forth, it's wonderful to be at one with the river. Get it wrong and you can get seriously munched. I've witnessed its beauty from underwater looking up through Snell's window, seen sparkling bioluminescent plankton whilst night diving, watched how water gracefully interacts with the landscape, dissolving and reshaping the soil, silt, and rocks it flows over, changing their very essence.
Most people think of water as blue, delicate, and lacey, but it's colourless. We only see it because it takes on the colour of substances that dissolve into it or reflects the world around it: city lights in a puddle, autumn leaves in a woodland pool, trees and sky in a rural stream. Its shimmering surface mirrors light in a delicate dance with its surroundings. It reflects the world back to us, distorting it, changing it, reshaping it. I see water very differently to how most people see it, and that's what I bring to the canvas.
I work in mixed media, building paintings in layers. Using brushes and palette knives, I apply texture paste or mixtures of sand and acrylic paint, sometimes embedding gravel or dried leaves collected from the water's edge. Once dry, I paint with heavy bodied and pouring acrylics, rarely using black but instead darkening colours by adding their opposite. My process is intuitive and physical, translating the rhythms and atmospheres I experience into expressive abstract work. Sometimes I approach the canvas with a clear vision, but more often the painting evolves as I work, building up colours, shapes, and contrasts before adding texture and metal leaf: gold, silver, or bronze.
My work is abstract, joyful, and uplifting, so interpretation belongs to the viewer. But I hope they might sense water's dual nature: beautiful yet violent, delicate yet powerful, transparent yet reflecting everything around it.
I'm based in London, but follow the water wherever it leads.
Biography
ARTIST
See above Artist's Statement
When the world retreated indoors during the 2020 pandemic, I returned to my artistic roots. After years behind the camera, I rediscovered my passion for painting, by creating abstract works that capture the essence and movement of water. By 2022, this rekindled love affair with paint had transformed my professional practice.
EXHIBITIONS
Elemental
Art Exhibition
The Chelsea Gallery, King’s Road, London
5th – 17th March 2024
In 2024, I organised and exhibited in Elemental, a group show held at the Chelsea Gallery. The exhibition featured work by four female artists, each expressing our connection to nature through painting in a range of mediums and styles. Each piece explored the impact of elemental forces on the natural world, inviting viewers to reflect on their own relationship with the environment.
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The River Within – London
Photography exhibition at the Riverside Gallery in Richmond-Upon -Thames
2nd of September to the 16th of November 2019.
London from a kayak
A Solo photography exhibition. By sharing my intimate water-level view from a kayak 'The River Within' offered a glimpse of London as seen from the perspective of a tiny kayak, revealing hidden facets of the city rarely witnessed by everyday Londoners.
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PHOTOGRAPHER
Between 2000 and 2022, I worked as a freelance photographer specialising in wild places and adventure sports, particularly in aquatic environments. I photographed water sports, caves, disused mines, waterways, and underwater portraiture for a range of editorial and corporate clients. In my later years as a photographer, much of my work was created from the perspective of a kayak, offering a unique, immersive view of the world from water level. My images were published in magazines and newspapers including The Daily Mail, The Telegraph, The Financial Times, BBC Science Focus Magazine, Diver Magazine, various in-flight magazines, and watersports organisations.
THE PANDEMIC
During the pandemic, I no longer had access to my usual photography subjects, but that unexpected pause gave me the time and space to return to drawing, and from there, I began experimenting with abstraction. Although my photographic work had always focused on creating objective, narrative-driven images, I’ve long been drawn to the expressive potential of colour, light, and composition, elements that are just as vital in painting. In many ways, abstract painting became a surprisingly natural extension of my previous work.
ART EDUCATION
I hold a BA (Hons) in Illustration and Graphic Design from Kingston University.
AWARDS
The Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust (QEST) 2005
I was honoured to receive a scholarship from QEST to support the development of my underwater photography.
OTHER RELEVANT ACTIVITIES
Kayaking (1995 – present)
I’m an experienced paddler and have explored rivers, lakes, canals, and coastlines by kayak. I often take underwater camera equipment with me, capturing images of landscapes, waterscapes, and people from this unique perspective. As a former Division One kayak slalom paddler, I’ve spent considerable time on whitewater in both the UK and France. These experiences have allowed me to navigate and document watery spaces in ways few others can.
Diving (since 2004)
Learning to dive opened up another dimension of aquatic exploration for me. I’ve photographed underwater in seas, rivers, canals, and swimming pools including documentary work, and creative underwater portraiture.
Together, these skills have nurtured a deep love for both wild and urban watery places and a strong appreciation of the need for clean, unpolluted water for the health and well-being of both wildlife and humans.
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ART FAIRS AND ART MARKETS
Parallax Art Fair (London)
Spitalfields Arts Market (London)
PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS
a-n The Artists Information Company
Visual Artists Association (VAA)