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, a book that accompanied the series is available to buy through the Oxmarket.
Each very generous sitter has talked about their relationship to plants, from formative experiences to their current involvement and passion for plants.
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.
Sea
Vale
Cliff
Coast