I paint to capture a world that feels suspended between reality and dreams—a place where bodies, stories, and sensations intermingle and shift. My large-scale oil paintings explore the fleshiness and fluidity of bodies, often using an abundance of linseed oil to achieve a gloopy, wet, almost oozing quality. This liquidity has connotations of bodily fluids, adding a visceral, tactile dimension to my work. The figures in my paintings are deconstructed and layered, fractured and fragmented, with an intentional ambiguity that encourages viewers to look closely, to unravel the piece, and to come to their own interpretations.
A key part of my process is layering, which I hope evokes the elusive feeling of a lingering dream. Like dreams, these forms are always in flux, sometimes difficult to pin down. This dreamlike quality connects to my experience of hypnagogic dreams—the vivid, sometimes unsettling images that hover between wakefulness and sleep. I aim to capture that surreal, in-between feeling: a mixture of the unsettling, the humorous, the uncanny, and the unexpected.
Celebrating the body is central to my work. In a society where discussions of sexuality are often repressed or stigmatised, I aim to create paintings that embrace nudity and sensuality without shame. I’m inspired by the Baroque period, especially Rubens, whose opulent, overflowing compositions celebrate flesh and movement. In a similar way, I layer bodies within my paintings, allowing figures to flow into one another, building a dynamic, sometimes chaotic energy akin to De Kooning’s approach in the 1950s. His use of oil and safflower oil gave his work a liquidity and fleshiness that I admire, and I strive to achieve a similar gloopy, sensuous quality in my own pieces.
I’m drawn to the way Renaissance artists’ drawings sometimes reveal traces of earlier marks, creating a sense of movement and mystery. Known later as pentimento, this technique has always felt dreamlike to me—the ghostly presence of something almost forgotten yet still lingering. This approach to layering is a core inspiration for my own work, where I aim to build a similar sense of visual depth and resonance.
Literature is another wellspring for my process. Many of my pieces are sparked by a character, scene, or feeling from stories that stay with me. Greek myths, Irish and British folklore, fairy tales—these all shape my work. I’m particularly drawn to retellings that breathe new life into old tales, like those by Sharon Blackie and Angela Carter, whose magical realism brings a fresh and visceral quality to myth. Most recently, Ovid’s Metamorphoses inspired a series where I explored bodily transformation as a natural, often uncomfortable process, paralleling nature’s own perpetual flux.
During my master’s studies, I was introduced to the concept of the “carnivalesque”—a literary theme that explores society turned on its head, where opposites coexist and boundaries blur. The carnival is chaotic and humorous, uniting the sacred and the profane, life and death, the beautiful and the unsettling. This juxtaposition creates a compelling visual tension, which I am working to bring into my own practice.
For the past two years, I’ve been developing a playful body of work on paper, inspired by Jungian “active imagination” meditation techniques. These small, vibrant pieces allow me to create without restraint, bringing a sense of silliness and experimentation into my studio. Though they differ in form, these works on paper are essential to my practice, often introducing elements that find their way into my larger paintings—infusing them with moments of absurdity and playfulness.
In both my large paintings and smaller works on paper, I explore the fluid, ambiguous nature of bodies, dreams, and imagination, inspired by the richness of myths and stories. Through layers, bold colours, and playful forms, I invite viewers to step into a world that reflects the shifting, unpredictable quality of the subconscious.
I hold a BA in History of Art from UCL (2017) and an MA in Fine Art from City & Guilds of London Art School (2023). I currently live and work in Oxfordshire, UK, and am represented by Gillian Jason Gallery in London.