The main focus for each portrait series I work on is to think about the connections that people have with the world around them. It is while considering the responses of the participants who talk about formative experiences related to each theme that I create their portraits; I really enjoy this process and the hunt for the common strands between the sitters.
The themes so far - Women & Water, People & Plants, Women & Word and coming in 2025, People & Place.
‘It really is a lovely and enchanting collection, the portraits capture the essence of people and their connections to the natural world and the environment in such a profound, sensitive and beguiling way that is so wonderful to see and the autobiographical texts are the perfect accompaniment.
This whole series is a wonderful achievement.’
Stephen Ellcock 2022
I write this introduction from a room of my own in Oxford, a city of words but one that hasn't always been as open to women writers as it is today. The history of women and words is lengthy, vast, and still evolving, and to be able to wield a pen as a woman (and a named, rather than anonymous, woman!) is a unique kind of power, privilege– and magic.
Words can be shells that whisper their stories. They can be anchors in a storm. Words are maps; a way out, or a way back to ourselves; paths to new worlds and new experiences. Words, for those of us who are drawn to write, are where we live. They're where we feel most alive and where we can share our innermost creative lives– and the lives of the characters and tales we create– with others. Our readers. You.
In this series I invited 14 contemporary women to write about their formative experiences of the written and spoken word. Each participant revealed their favourite words and discussed the writers and books that had influenced them. It was while considering what each sitter had written that I created each portrait.
In 2022 I created illustrated portraits of artist Eileen Mayo (book 8) potter Lucie Rie (book 9) and artist Tirzah Garwood (book 10) for Eiderdown Books . Eiderdown Books is an independent publisher making books about Modern Women Artists written by leading female writers, art historians and cultural commentators.
Female writers and literary characters feature in this portrait series. Link to an interview with me during the exhibition of this work at Weald Contemporary in October 2023 below.
In this portrait series I invited writers, poets, a stone carver, zine maker, journalists, poets, a teacher, a lecturer and a curator to write about their connections to word. I drew a portrait of each sitter whilst considering their writing; the portraits and written pieces were exhibited and produced in a book.
This portrait series was on show at Oxmarket Contemporary in April 2022.
Each very generous sitter shared their relationship to plants, from formative experiences to their current involvement and passion for plants in a written piece which was displayed beside each portrait.
This series of portraits focuses on 13 wonderful women: artists, wild swimmer, mudlarks, art historian, publisher, writers, actress, teacher, mothers, craftivist, ceramicist. Each sitter has contributed a written piece about their particular experience of water to accompany their portrait.
When I left home, one of my most treasured possessions was a picture of my grandmother, she was about the same age as me at the time, a smiley 20 year old, sitting on the beach with her mother, father and sister. This photograph was and is, a little window into the past, it embodies for me a beautiful, fleeting moment. I aspire to create portraits that possess these qualities.
Extract (for full interview go to link below )
Is the house in Sea II inspired by an actual building or place?
I have very happy childhood memories of family holidays on the Devon and Cornwall coast; although not an actual building or place, the scene perhaps represents those places.
François Gilot
Louise Bourgeois
Barbara Jones
Dora Maar