About me
I am a Belfast-based painter, returning to full-time practice after completing a Masters in Fine Art at Ulster University, where I graduated with a distinction and was the recipient of the Siobhan McQuade memorial prize for painting. Prior to this I spent more than twenty years working as an art teacher.
Working primarily in oil on canvas, my practice explores the layered nature of memory, time and lived experience, examining how these shape our understanding of place, identity and human connection. My paintings draw upon personal experience, observation and remembered places, moving between landscapes, domestic interiors and the spaces we inhabit both physically and psychologically. Whether depicting figures or unpopulated environments, I am interested in the emotional resonance of everyday moments and the ways in which familiar places become repositories for memory, presence and absence.
About the Process
Through thin, translucent layers of oil paint, compositions gradually emerge, with traces of earlier marks remaining visible beneath the surface. Erasure becomes as significant as addition, reflecting the shifting and selective nature of memory and perception. Boundaries between observation, recollection and imagination are allowed to dissolve, creating works that balance the recognisable with the ambiguous.
Rather than presenting fixed narratives, my paintings invite viewers to bring their own experiences and interpretations to the work, encouraging moments of reflection on memory, place, time and the quiet complexities of everyday life.