"I found i could say things with colour and
shapes that I couldn't say any other way"
   -Georgia O'Keeffe

​

I am a female painter. I live and work from my small holding in the South of France. My practice is autobiographical and it is through painting that I explore my daily domestic experiences and identity as a woman, mother, immigrant and farmer.

I utilise my practice to work through painful, mundane and enjoyable experiences.  Love, connection, detachment, abandonment and acceptance are recurring subjects in my paintings. The process of making and the outcome for me is transformative and healing. I see painting as my super power. It is where I find a balance between joy and grief, between searching and still. It is where I finally belong and can be quietly satisfied with myself. 

My canvases are full of positive energy, vibrant colour, pattern and warm light. I grew up in Alberta, Canada, where the landscape is very white and the colours are stark and angular. Upon moving to the south of France I immediately fell for the intensity of the light. I love to play with hot, contrasting colour palettes, directly observed from my home and immediate surroundings.

I also use colour to visualise the intensity of my emotions.I know the extreme and visceral joy of birthing and raising children and the comfort and wonder of being connected to nature. I find great beauty in the simple pleasures of life. The accumulation of these experiences builds to a point where I need release, whereby paintings flow out of me onto the canvas.

The color and pattern in my work is inspired by my travels in Asia, the natural world and domestic crockery and fabric from the 1950’s and 60’s. Repeating geometric and organic patterns are built up using hand made stencils. The patterns represent connection, growth, and belonging. In contrast to the busy areas of patternation there are empty spaces, flat fields of colour, where the viewer may rest their eye and find peace.

Through my work I am searching for my place in this world. As a daughter living in between families, a mother mourning the loss of her first born son as well as raising two thriving boys. An immigrant lost and found at home in a foreign country and language. Longing for belonging I express myself through story and colour. Longing for connection I am searching for balance and peace,  a loving conversation with both myself and the viewer. 

 

I create joyful images to bring beauty into the world that is littered with the complex feelings of loss and pain