Since 2017 I have been developing two strands of oil paintings inspired stylistically by my interest in Italian Renaissance art. One depicts interpersonal interactions in landscape settings, and the other, my small Antecedent works, shows figures in bland interior spaces with my artworks from 2001 to the present. My titles, usually based on pop song lyrics, playfully underscore ironies or suggest tensions, and are frequently the inspiration for a work.​ My figures are mostly painted from or refer to historical paintings or drawings.
​
As Whol asserted, ‘During the fifteenth century, abstract and naturalistic aspects of pictorial art retained a crisply articulated distinctness, and their relationship displayed restraint and tension.’ I suggest this sort of distinctness by juxtaposing contemporary landscapes and real-world interior settings with mannered or idealised bodies, emphasising their artificiality by, for example, extending limbs or stylising hair. I’m aiming for a visual and narrative coherence, whilst leaving enough space for something more nuanced and potentially transformative to develop or appear for both myself and viewers of the works.
Creating these scenarios with their differing associations and timeframes has enabled me to make connections between what I enjoy looking at and my own interpersonal relationships, encounters, and feelings, past and present. An unexpected bonus of the pivot from my previous medium of digital and sculptural installation to oil painting, has been a hugely enhanced appreciation of natural landscapes, and landscape painting through the ages. So, what started as a passionate interest in Ferrarese painters of the 1470s has turned into a long-term painting project, and much deeper understanding of historical artistic practices, methods and contexts.
Whol, Helmut, The Paintings of Domenico Veneziano: A Study in Florentine Art of the Early Renaissance, (New York University Press, 1980) p. xxiii
Exhibitions
2025 Beep Painting Biennial, School of Art Gallery, Aberystwyth University 2024 Antidote, Oriel Canfas, Cardiff Beep Painting Biennial, Elysium Gallery, Swansea Royal Cambrian Academy Open Exhibition, Conwy 2023 The Reading Group, Oriel Canfas, Cardiff Turner House Open Exhibition, Penarth Without Borders, Oriel CARN, Caernarfon 2022 Salon des Refusés, Aberystwyth Arts Centre, Aberystwyth 2022 Without Borders, AMC, Nagoya, Japan and Meta Forte, Venice, Italy COA, Cowbridge, Vale of Glamorgan Royal Cambrian Academy Open Exhibition, Conwy 2021 Without Borders, Art Spot Korean, Kyoto, Japan and Elysium, Swansea ING Discerning Eye, Mall Galleries, London Turner House Open Exhibition, Penarth Royal Cambrian Academy Open Exhibition, Conwy 2020 International Women's Day Exhibition, Art Central, Barry 2019 We Make Art Too: CASW, Art Central, Barry RWA Open, Royal West of England Academy, Bristol 2018 vis-à -vis, Oriel y Bont, University of South Wales 2017 More Front Than a Cow's Got...Kunst!!, MADE, Cardiff Derive, Galleria 4-kuus, Helsinki, Finland We Draw and More, Barnabas Arts House, Newport 2016 Garden of Earthly Delights, Former Customs & Immigration Building, Cardiff 2015 tactileBOSCH Berlin, rosalux, Berlin, Germany 2014 Paradise Lost, Former Customs & Immigration Building, Cardiff Futures in Question, Goldsmiths, University of London 2013 Drawing In Between: Interdisciplinary Learning through Drawing, Howard Gardens Gallery, Cardiff Old Victoria Buildings Revival, Fringe Arts, Bath WE DRAW, Butetown History and Art Centre, Cardiff 2012 WIRAD GRADE, Howard Gardens Gallery, Cardiff With Reference To…, Art Central, Barry 36 Women Artists, Butetown History and Art Centre, Cardiff Blowback, tactileBOSCH, Cardiff Re:Union Salon, Urban Gallery, Cardiff 2011 In Haus, Printhaus, Cardiff Tradition, Traveller’s Café, Barry 2010 Tradition, Llanover Hall, Cardiff Tenure, Cardiff Millennium Centre 2009 SHOP, Queen’s Arcade, Cardiff 2008 Searching Beyond…, Howard Gardens Gallery, Cardiff Body Echoes, Oriel Canfas, Cardiff Come to the Edge, Ivy Brown Gallery, New York 2007 Addiction: Dark Victory, tactileBOSCH, Cardiff Stick ‘Em Up, Old Nat West Bank, Cardiff Bay Addiction: Walking the Line, tactileBOSCH, Cardiff The Apotropaic Eye, tactileBOSCH, Cardiff 2006 Essays on Synaesthesia, Oriel y Bont, University of Glamorgan, Pontypridd From Me to You, Norwegian Church, Cardiff Bay Gene Culture, Liverpool Biennial Independents, Slaughterhouse 73 Gallery, Liverpool Paradise, tactileBOSCH and SHOP, Cardiff Future Matters, Department of Social Sciences, Cardiff University Bosch in the Bush, Coed Hills Rural Artspace, Vale of Glamorgan Strange Relations, Muni Arts Centre, Pontypridd Gene Culture, Egg Space Gallery, Liverpool Between the Sheets, Proud Gallery, Camden, London Lab, Smock and Two Smoking Piles, Paintworks, Bristol 2005 Nest, Shelter, Column, lac Labarthe, Caylus, France Ment-al, House, Cardiff KISSS, Conical Gallery, Melbourne, Australia Coagulation, tactileBOSCH, Cardiff European Heritage Weekend, Duffryn Gardens, Vale of Glamorgan fourchette@Canfas, Oriel Canfas, Cardiff Creature, Elastic Residence, Whitechapel, London fourchette 4, Centrespace, Bristol Kissing The Pink, The Art Academy, Southwark, London
Qualifications
2013 Doctor of Philosophy, Cardiff School of Art & Design, Cardiff Metropolitan University
2008 Certificate in Research Methods, UWIC
2003 Master of Arts: Fine Art with Distinction, UWIC
1995 Foundation Diploma, Art and Design, UWIC
1992 Bachelor of Arts, The Open University
1981 Bachelor of Science (with Honours): Zoology, University College Cardiff