Artist Statement

I am interested in corporeality: the experience of living in the female body and my relationship to the world. Within my paintings I use the female figure to represent myself, but the connotations are universal. The figures in my paintings are negotiating territory, claiming space and at times, tempting fate. It is important that the figure is responded to in terms of its environment, as an emotive and shifting presence. My work explores the ambivalent notion of ‘the edge’ and the suggestion inherent in it: the border, brink, threshold, boundary is a dominant theme. I paint specific places in Cornwall, which have a personal significance. These places are huge open spaces, with expanses of sea, sand and sky, which seem to circle and encompass one. The lure of these places is their endurance, their essence remains the same; to me they are a sanctuary and evoke a sense of freedom and remind one of the relativity of life.