Portfolio of Selected Works
The Wool Makers, Oil on board, 44x30cm (2025)
I work primarily in oil paint, using observation, memory, and historical reference to explore domestic life, female narratives, and the emotional presence of objects and interiors.
My paintings often begin through direct encounters from plein air studies, still life arrangements, historical re-enactments, textiles, and everyday spaces before developing through layered brushwork and intuitive colour relationships. I am particularly interested in the tactile qualities of paint and the way surface can echo material histories such as embroidery, fabric, ornament, and craft traditions.
Influenced by living history, interior spaces, and domestic environments, I explore how memory and atmosphere become embedded within ordinary moments and inherited objects. As a woman artist and mother, I am drawn to subjects connected to female labour, quiet rituals, and overlooked histories, approaching painting as a way of preserving emotional and cultural memory.
Alongside studio work, painting outdoors and from life continues to shape my practice, encouraging a slower and more attentive way of looking. Through texture, colour, and painterly observation, I aim to create work that feels intimate, contemplative, and materially alive.
The Wool Makers
Developed from studies made during a living history re-enactment, this work explores traditional craft and female labour through layered oil paint and rhythmic colour relationships. I was drawn to the quiet concentration of the figures and the tactile qualities of wool, fabric, and handmade objects, using brushwork and texture to echo the material richness of the scene. The painting was completed in the studio following direct observation and sketching from life, allowing the composition to evolve through memory, atmosphere, and intuitive adjustments rather than strict documentation. While rooted in observation, I was interested in creating a sense of presence and emotional stillness within the space. Through this work, I explore my ongoing interest in historical craft traditions, domestic histories, and the quiet rituals of everyday labour that continue to hold emotional and cultural significance today.
Fur Elise
This painting marks the beginning of a tapestry-inspired series created as a dedication to my daughter. Influenced by 18th-century Parisian embroidery and decorative textiles, I explore how historical ornament and craft traditions can be reinterpreted through contemporary oil painting.
Built gradually through small, deliberate brushstrokes, the surface developed intuitively to echo the delicacy of needlework while retaining the physicality and texture of layered paint. Combining still life reference with imagination, I was interested in creating a work that feels both decorative and tactile, where pattern, colour, and surface hold emotional presence.
Through this series, I explore memory, femininity, domestic beauty, and the relationship between painting and textile traditions, using ornament and repetition as a way of connecting past and present through material and process.
Fur Elise Floral Brocade, Oil on canvas, 61x61cm (2023)
Winter Still Life of Pumpkins and Berries
Painted outdoors in natural winter light, this work captures homegrown gourds and seasonal greenery gathered from our garden. Working directly from a still life arrangement, I focused on colour relationships, texture, and rhythm within the composition, allowing the painting to develop gradually through layered brushwork and close observation.
This was my first experience painting a still life outdoors, where shifting light, changing tones, and cold weather conditions became part of the process itself. The experience deepened my interest in plein air painting and in capturing transient moments shaped by atmosphere and season.
Through this work, I explore the quiet intimacy of domestic life and the emotional resonance held within everyday objects, seasonal rituals, and familiar surroundings.
Winter Still Life of Pumpkins and Berries, Oil on board, 33.5x28cm (2025)
Mother's gift of Pearls
This still life brings together treasured objects connected to family history: a vintage pearlescent dish, a pearl necklace gifted by my mother, and a table inherited from my father. Working from observation, I explored the relationship between reflective surfaces, warm wood tones, and delicate textures through layered oil paint and close attention to light.
I was particularly interested in the challenge of composing and placement of the pearls alongside the changing reflections and contrasting shapes within the arrangement, allowing the painting to develop gradually through observation and intuitive adjustment. Through my still life practice, I explore domestic memory, inherited objects, and the quiet emotional presence held within everyday things.
Mother's gift of Pearls, Oil on canvas panel, 20x20cm (2026)
Bouquet de Rouges
Bouquet de Rouges is an oil painting exploring themes of memory, atmosphere, and domestic intimacy through layered, impressionistic brushwork. The composition centres on a bouquet of red roses arranged in a vintage ceramic vase, surrounded by decorative objects and references to interior space that connect past and present.
Working from observation, I was particularly interested in balancing the side cabinet within the composition without allowing it to overpower the main subject. Capturing the angles, wood grain, shifting shadows, and varied textures became an important part of the painting process, encouraging a more attentive approach to structure and surface.
Through still life, I explore how everyday objects can hold emotional presence, familiarity, and personal memory.
Bouquet de Rouges, Oil on canvas board, 30.5x22.5cm (2025)
Historic folly in the Garden
Painted en plein air in Colchester, this work focuses on the historic garden of the Minories Galleries and its surrounding landscape. I was particularly drawn to the unusual perspective, where dense foreground foliage, Gothic architecture, and glimpses of the exposed interior existed together within the composition.
Working alla prima on site, the painting developed through direct observation and intuitive brushwork as shifting daylight continually altered the atmosphere, shadows, and architectural details throughout the day. Balancing the foreground elements, middle-ground structure, and distant space became an important part of the process, alongside capturing the curves, textures, and decorative features of the summerhouse.
Through my plein air practice, I explore places where heritage and nature intersect, using light, atmosphere, and painterly observation to capture the quiet character and emotional presence of a space.
Historic folly in the Garden, Oil on canvas board, 23x31cm (2025)
Beside the fireplace, Oil on canvas, 60x50cm (2022)
Beside the fireplace
This surreal interior commission combines observed objects, historical references, and imagined elements within a constructed domestic setting. While rooted in direct observation, the composition developed intuitively through invention, symbolism, and atmospheric colour relationships.
Constructing the room required balancing multiple references, figures, objects, and architectural elements while maintaining a sense of scale, harmony, and movement throughout the composition. I was particularly interested in the challenge of working with the changing firelight, contrasting textures, and varied tonal relationships across wood, fabric, reflective surfaces, and figures, allowing each element to remain connected within the wider scene.
Through layered brushwork and careful placement of objects, I approached the painting as a narrative interior where domestic space, memory, and imagination quietly intersect.
Blooming Grandeur
Painted from direct observation, Blooming Grandeur explores my fascination with texture, ornament, and the physicality of oil paint. Inspired by the luminous tonalities and impasto of early impressionist painters such as Adolphe Monticelli, I developed the surface through layered, tactile brushwork to emphasise both colour and form.
At the centre of the composition, an antique German urn vase becomes a study of sculptural detail, where thick impasto allows light to interact with the painted surface, creating movement and depth across the picture plane. One of the main challenges within the work was balancing scale and proportion while translating the intricate decorative details into convincing three-dimensional forms through expressive mark-making.
The dark surrounding background was intentionally built with dense, gestural brushstrokes to contrast against the ornate subject, allowing the gold and floral elements to emerge with heightened luminosity. Through this process, the painting reflects my ongoing interest in how texture and observation can transform decorative objects into emotionally resonant contemporary still life paintings.
Blooming Grandeur, Oil on board, 20x16cm (2025)
Porcelain Figurine in natural light
Developed from observation, this porcelain figurine from The Fitzwilliam Museum continues my ongoing exploration of historic figurines interpreted through a contemporary painterly lens. Drawn to the theatrical pose, decorative costume, and reflective porcelain surface of the figure, I became interested in translating its sculptural presence into a convincing two-dimensional composition through expressive oil paint and impasto mark-making.
One of the main challenges within the work was resolving the figure’s complex positioning and maintaining a sense of scale, movement, and anatomical rhythm without losing its delicate figurative qualities. The reflective porcelain surface required close observation of shifting light and tonal variation, while layered impasto helped convey luminosity, texture, and the tactile quality of the object itself.
This study forms part of my wider interest in the relationship between observation, ornament, and historical objects, particularly how three-dimensional forms can be reinterpreted through contemporary colour, surface, and composition. Through this process, I continue to develop my understanding of translating sculptural forms into painterly space while preserving both character and atmosphere.
Porcelain Figurine in natural light, Oil on canvas panel, 30x20cm (2026)
This portfolio presents selected works from my ongoing observational and studio-based painting practice, developed through direct study, historical research, and sustained experimentation with oil paint.