I am a painter, based in Leeds. I studied Fine Art at Leeds Metropolitan University, graduating in 2003 and I gained an MA in Creative Practice (specialising in Painting) from Leeds Arts University in 2018. I worked as the Studio, Exhibitions and Painting Technician at Leeds Arts University from 2011 until 2019, before pursuing my painting practice full time.
I make small scale oil paintings constructed of thin layers and glazes of oil paint which are drawn into and wiped away as often as they are painted over. They are an investigation into the hidden human histories of seemingly insignificant objects, usually furniture. Often ignored these objects bear witness to human activity, be it remembered, lived, forgotten or mythologised. The depicted objects are presented dislocated and isolated within an intangible space. The objects appear as unadorned, formal arrangements in a painterly restaging of the interrelationship of material, image, object, and time.
My work has won awards and is exhibited widely, both nationally and internationally. In 2020 I won the Wells Art Contemporary Patron’s Prize and in 2019 I won the Hix Award. I was also awarded runner up in the London Contemporary Art Prize and shortlisted for the Neo Art Prize in the same year. In previous years my work has been included in the Made in Britain Exhibition, National Museum of Poland, Gdansk, (2019). The John Moores Painting Prize Exhibition, The Walker Gallery, Liverpool, (2018), the Columbia Threadneedle Prize Exhibition, The Mall Galleries, London (2018), the Contemporary Masters from Britain Exhibition, touring four museums in China (2017), Inter Youth International Painting Exhibition, China Academy of Arts, China, (2017) The Marmite Prize for Painting Exhibition, Block 336 Gallery, London, (2016), the Lynn Painter-Stainer’s Prize Exhibition, the Mall Galleries, London, (2018, 2016), the Discerning Eye Exhibition, The Mall Galleries, London (2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2012, 2010) and the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, The Royal Academy, London, (2012, 2009). My work is also held in the Priseman Seabrook Collection of 21 st Century British Painting.
