Artist Statement
My work is about healing, connection and finding a way back to ourselves after difficult experiences.
I work with landscape, figurative painting and textiles. These different parts of my practice are linked by a shared interest in how art can help us notice, feel and reconnect. I am drawn to beauty, not as a way of avoiding pain, but as a way of meeting it with care, honesty and hope.
My landscape paintings are a slow attentive way of noticing beauty, difference and belonging. They are nearly always painted outdoors from direct observation using acrylic gouache. They seek to communicate the stillness, wonder and the comfort we can find in place.
My figurative paintings are usually painted in oils and use stories, symbols and human forms to explore lived experiences of grief, justice, resilience and recovery. They often begin with chaotic mark-making and move towards order and clarity. Each painting represents a process of hope, moving through ‘mess’ towards beauty.
My textile work is made through repeated, hands-on actions such as dyeing, tufting and stitching natural yarn. These slow, rhythmic processes feel connected to healing: small acts repeated over and over, bringing relief, restoration and autonomy .
Although these works take different forms, they all come from the same question: how can art help us feel human again after pain, loss or disconnection?
The work invites viewers to slow down, reflect and connect with their own experiences of healing, strength and renewal.
ARTIST STATEMENT
MY JOURNEY
My journey in art began with a strong foundation in realism, shaped through drawing portraits, still life and wildlife. For many years, I was drawn to the discipline and skill involved in creating a ‘perfect’ image, but over time that pursuit became exhausting and unfulfilling. After three years away from drawing and painting, I found my way back through play — exploring colour, marks and materials with a renewed sense of freedom.
That shift was transformational, not only for my own practice but in the way I understood creativity itself. Through abstraction, expressionism and extensive colour studies, I began to see art as something more open and accessible — a pathway into connection for people who may feel on the edges. My work now returns again and again to the belief that art should have purpose: to bring hope, build community and inspire others to discover their own sense of freedom.
BIOGRAPHY
1995 BA (Hons) Fine Art, University of Ulster, Belfast
2018 Level 3 City & Guilds Award in Education & Training, Loughborough College
2022 Journey of Hope Alumni, Immersive leadership Programme for Peace and Reconciliation, St Ethelburga’s, London
Awards/Residencies
2023 Sky Arts Landscape Artist of the Year, Main Contestant
2023 Public Art Commission, Ards Hospital, N.Ireland
2023 Shackleton Residency Award, Falkland Islands
2022 Winner of Parker Harris Mentoring Award & exhibition award
2021 Best Abstract/interpretative painting in show, Artists for Conservation, Vancouver
2021 Finalist in BBC Wildlife Artist of the Year, London
2018 John Busby Drawing Bursary Award, Society of Wildlife Artists, London
2015 Featured artist in N.Ireland television production
2013 Invited artist for Scuba Dive Art Expedition to Cayman Islands, Artists for Conservation
2011 Master Artists Seminar, Cortes Island, Vancouver Island
2011 Featured artist in BBC Wild Week Live Television production: Live broadcast art demonstration
2008 Selected to represent front cover of Artists for Conservation Exhibition international showbook
2008 Featured artist in RTE Nationwide Television production, Ireland
Group Shows
2022 Harley Open, Harley Gallery, Wellbeck, Nottinghamshire
2022 TALP Open, Patchings Art Centre, Nottingham
2021 Waterston House, Aberlady, Scotland (3 person show)
2021 Nottingham City Artists Studio Exhibition, St Marys, Nottingham
2021 Artists for Conservation, Vancouver. (Virtual Exhibit)
2021 Finalist, David Shepherd Artist of the Year
2020 Artists for Conservation, Vancouver (Virtual Exhibit)
2019 Society of Wildlife Artists, Mall Galleries, London
2018 Society of Wildlife Artists, Mall Galleries, London
2017 Artists for Conservation, Marine Exhibition Tour in Florida & China
2017 Artists and Illustrators Exhibition, Mall Galleries, London
2009 Society of Animal Artists, Rolling Hills Wildlife Adventure, Kansas,
2009 Artists for Conservation, Dunnegan Gallery of Art, MO, Ward Museum of Wildfowl, MD
2008 Birds in Art, Leigh Yawkey Musuem, Wisconsin
2008 Society of Animal Artists, The Neville Museum, Green Bay, Wisconsin
2008 Artists for Conservation, The Art of Conservation, Hiram Blauvelt Museum, New Jersey, USA
2007 The Wildlife Experience, Parker, Denver, CO
Solo Exhibitions
2012 Solo exhibition, WWT Art gallery, N.Ireland
2010 Solo exhibition, WWT Art Gallery, N.Ireland
2000 N.Ireland Television personalities, sporting legends, business leaders and politicians
Significant Private & Public Collections
2008 Private collector of internationally recognised wildlife collection, New York (5 paintings)
2000 Ulster Museum, Belfast (4 paintings)
1997 Northern Ireland Civil Service, Belfast
1995 Northern Ireland Civil Service, Belfast