Painting for me restores, nurtures and carries me on, it is my oxygen and life boat . It also happens to be my master, my fearcest critic , my shield and weapon of choice .

As an artist, wife, and full-time carer, life is varied. I make supper, sort out the washing, feed the cats, and do the dishes and on it goes. Meanwhile in the studio unfinished paintings, and notebooks wait for my attention and ideas swim in my head. 

Like other creative woman who have family responsibilities, navigating these contrasting demands is simply life. 

When painting , I constantly ask, “What’s wrong with this picture, and try to solve the problem ?”Meanwhile, in the real world, capitalists and politicians continue to exploit, and tyrants mark up their next target.

To me this world has many faces, its heaven and hell , beautiful and ugly , occasionally all at the same time . Being alive is intense and profound especially where these opposites run in parallel. I watch the news and witness atrocities and acts of absolute barbarity , then I feed the cats and do the washing up . How does a person reconcile these opposing experiences ?

Throughout history, women artists have not only used their work to record their day to day interactions and domesticity, but to try to answer, or at least process the what they witness going on in the wider world , in an attempt to find the truth or to mark what they see is wrong in a broader sense in our global picture. 

An artists life can be very isolated. Given this, a brutal honesty is essential in the studio when reviewing one’s work . I must be my own harsh critic. So perhaps it is natural to transfer that evaluative lens from my studio out into the world. That same critical lens can also see the systemic imbalances, the exploitation, and the structural failures of modern society.

My method of questioning any subject matter the only way I know, is to use the painting process. Finally to create imagery, often through a painted story . Writers might write about a subject, or make a poem about it and a musician might compose . By using this process, I come to understand or make sense of what it is to be human , and maybe , just maybe this painting connects with someone else who gets it. 

It’s what artists do, using whatever medium they choose, we envision things , hear things, see things . To make a piece of art work requires some alchemy . Metamorphosis takes place, as our invisible floating concepts start to settle, and react with each other, and so it goes on, fluid , changing, beginning in one place and ending,  when no more can be said.

The Weight of Domesticity vs. Reality .

There is often a dissonance when moving between these different worlds:

The Domestic: Feeding cats, doing the dishes, and sorting laundry are repetitive, grounding, and immediate. These chores demand my physical presence, but they can unexpectedly offer up a subject for a painting. Suddenly I see something maybe the dog sleeping after being fed which has a simple beauty that I have an urge to paint.

Self Portrait with Ruby Sleeping, (Dartmoor)/Oil on board/ 1993/ 21 x 15/NFS

The Global: The news of political tyranny and capitalist exploitation is vast, heavy, and often feels entirely out of anyone’s control. Sometimes this prompts in me a search for greater understanding, or a drive to mark the event I have witnessed by exploring the subject further by painting about it.

June 2016. Yemen/Taiz Zoo. Civilians and animals suffer and die trapped in the war. A prayer for those caught up in conflict and thanks for those that help. Oil on board. 8 x 10″. From the series ‘One Hundred painted Vows’. Ex Voto.

The Artistic: Painting requires isolation, deep focus, and an emotional vulnerability that is easily affected by the weight of the external world or a lack of studio time.

It seems looking back, my paintings have become the space where domestic life and global truths often meet.