Artist Statement

On Presence, Light and the Figure

My work centres on the human figure, often the female figure, not as an ideal or an object of display, but as a bearer of human presence. I am drawn less to dramatic gesture than to quieter moments: a hand at rest, a shift in posture, the way light settles on form. These are the moments in which the figure ceases to perform and simply begins to exist.

My practice is rooted in the discipline of Early Netherlandish painting. Working with panel, West Flemish linen, traditional gesso, egg tempera and oil, I build each painting slowly through layered construction and close attention to surface. Rather than imitating the Old Masters, I work within their discipline while pursuing a contemporary language of presence, dignity and embodied experience. My background in chemistry informs this process, shaping the way I think about pigments, binders and the long-term behaviour of materials.

Painting remains the centre of my practice. Alongside it, I work with cyanotype, palladiotype and other process-based photographic techniques. These works function as studies in light, gesture and presence, extending questions that also belong to the paintings.

Across media, I am interested in images that ask for sustained looking. Meaning is not delivered immediately, but gradually disclosed through structure, restraint and material attention. My aim is not to produce spectacle, but to create images whose presence unfolds over time.