Statement

The focus of my work is public gardens, where the natural world is harnessed and made accessible; I enjoy their balance of design, formality, and the energy of vivid nature.

Above all else, I’m drawn to gardens as places where nature is staged and performed in glorious condensed simulations of the natural world. I’ve become particularly interested in the idea of the garden as a stage for interactions between organic forms within a constructed space, and figures which may be real, imagined, or simply sensed.

Drawing is a cornerstone of my practice; it’s important for me to begin with direct and often acute observations of garden plants and spaces. These, mostly sketchbook drawings, are married with images inspired by other sources, which have most recently included embroidery, Giotto, Lorenzo Lotto, and various depictions of mythical figures.  In the studio, all these images are arranged and reformed using abstracted space and colour to create another environment and experience, occasionally evoking a metaphysical resonance. The process of reimagining gardens from the distance of a studio amplifies their simulated qualities and potential to stage imagined narratives. A recent series of works explores a situation of being benignly observed by another presence which may be real or imagined, or perhaps glimpsed in the corner of an eye.