Artwork
Departure
Departure is about fleeting moments: an electric glance with a stranger; a memory of a feeling that vanishes before you can place it; our time on earth.
Departure will be in Mid Wales Arts Centre Gallery as part of the People Like Us portraits exhibition running from 23rd March to 11th May 2025.
This original artwork is priced at £275 and is available to buy through Mid Wales Arts Centre.
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Stretch
‘Stretch’ emerged from the theme Routine and Ritual via exploration into physical movement and exercise routines, which usually incorporate stretching. The figure under the diaphanous fabric symbolises the blissful sensations and emotions that arise from these actions. The fluid, radiant white space mirrors the renewal and reset we can experience in mind and body through the simple and powerful act of stretching.
Stretch was displayed in Galley Gwyn's atrium, as part of the Ritual and Routine exhibition from 8th Feb - 5th April 2025.
This original artwork is priced at £300 and is available to buy - enquire by email.
Life drawing flurry
Medusa: Retold
Medusa:
Gorgon, ‘monster’, deadly, cursed.
Woman. Sister. Loved.
‘Stone Blind’ by Natalie Haynes reinterprets and retells the classic Greek myth of Medusa’s story from a fresh perspective. I first heard about the book when Haynes discusses it, along with the Greek myths and the representation of monsters and women, with Katy Hessel on The Great Women Artists podcast. I was intrigued enough to read the book, and it’s a blinder!
And I was inspired to create an image of Medusa. In ‘Stone Blind’, Medusa is cursed by Athena, for being raped by Poseidon in Athena’s own temple. The curse takes the form of snakes in place of hair, and the ‘power’ of anything she looks at turning to stone. After being cursed, Medusa retreats to a cave so that she won't harm her sisters. It is in this cave that ‘hero’ Perseus hunts her down to obtain her head as a trophy.
In my drawing, I gave Medusa a last opportunity to enjoy the sun on her face and her snakes, before Perseus slays her in her sleep. Her eyes are shut, so that she doesn’t inadvertently kill us for gazing at her.
I recommend both Stone Blind by Natalie Haynes, and podcast The Great Women Artists with Katy Hessel.
Perimenopause
When I created Perimenopause, there was nothing merry about it. I hoped that perhaps it might connect with the viewer via a thread of dark emotion. But perhaps it can also be relatable on a lighter level: provoking laughter at the recognition of a temporary mental state, which seems perilous and confusing at the time, but from which we emerge alongside others. We are not alone after all, we can laugh at ourselves, and that right there is a beautiful thing, and proof of hope.
Perimenopause was displayed in Gallery Gwyn's summer exhibition from August to October 2024.
Read more in my blog here
Final Major Project 'Routines & Rituals',
Art & Design Foundation, Coleg Ceredigion
Inspired by the rituals surrounding death and weddings, my artwork explores the intersecting themes of uncertainty and transition. I imagined a wary bride on her wedding day, and a woman on her deathbed, both on the brink of a journey into the unknown.
My research included Victorian death photography, where the deceased were posed with the living for a final memento. The long exposure time on cameras in the Victorian era meant that the photograph revealed the living as slightly blurred, the deceased as literally dead still. This blurring of the living seemed to fit well with the ghost drawing charcoal technique that I have used.
I was inspired by Frank Auerbach’s charcoal portraits, Bill Viola’s explorations of death, and Antony Gormley’s caves as ‘locations of imagination’.
I invite viewers to ponder the spaces in between life and death, dreams and reality.
Displayed at Gallery Gwyn, Aberaeron February to April 2025.
Departure. Charcoal on paper. 43 x 53cm framed.
Stretch. Charcoal and gesso on plywood with a bespoke black wood frame. 1m x 1m. £300
Medusa: Retold. Charcoal & chalk, 30 x 40cm. SOLD
Perimenopause.
Inks & pastels on cotton rag paper. 21 x 29cm, framed. £150 enquire via email
Twilight's Veiled Bride. Diptych. 120cm x 120cm, x2. Mixed media. SOLD
Gwenllian Ashley Art Prize 2024
Theme: Power & Climate Change
With this mixed media piece I strove to attract and provoke the viewer with an unusual, quirky perspective. I drew upon Carrington's surreal narratives and Höch's pioneering collage techniques.
I was awarded joint third prize and my piece was included in the exhibition at the Aberystwyth School of Art Gallery in April/May 2024. This achievement holds special significance for me as it not only recognises my creative endeavours but also highlights an urgent issue of our time.
Read about my visit to the Leonora Carrington: Rebel Visionary exhibition here
Evolution Revolution.
Mixed media on canvas. 51cm x 51cm. £250 enquire by email
Power.
Of art. To inspire. To empower. To challenge. To change.
Energy. Harnessing nature. Wind turbines.
Of nature. Fighting back. Evolving.
Nature commandeers the energy in wind turbines, reclaiming power.
Utilising the increased volume of the sea created by climate change, as an origin place for new species, revolutionising evolution.
Nature creates solutions: hybrid creatures that regenerate like cells, dividing and multiplying.
Each creature consumes something different:
Sewage.
Plastic.
Toxic chemicals including weedkiller.
Pharmaceuticals including antibiotics.
Methane.
Each creature excretes something different:
Oxygen.
Carbon dioxide.
Clean water.
Soil nutrients.
Influences: Leonora Carrington, Hannah Hoch.
Acrylic paint, collage, oil pastel on canvas.
Self-portraits
What Lies Beneath. Oil and acrylic on paper. 16 x21cm
Emerald Reverie. Mixed media, 42 x 58cm. Acrylic paints, ink, and oil pastel.