For the past 20 years I have photographed plants and flowers. I love to sit in beautiful gardens and be amazed at the natural world with its many colours and shapes. Working close up allows me to compose strong graphical elements alongside wider traditional garden landscapes. Recently, Covid brought limitations in travel and a sharp increase in screen time as my ‘day job’ moved online. No longer did I want to sit and edit photographs so I turned to painting which as a physical activity provides freedom from the home office.

In both media I find I am fascinated by strong shapes, bold colours and using abstraction to find my own story to tell.

In photography I use abstraction in several ways. Using a shallow depth of field to limit focus and draw attention to selected details, converting to black and white to remove usual colour references and getting close-up to a subject to remove clues to the wider environment.

With painting I can take this further. I can compose elements which may not be in front of me, I can choose colours which may or may not be realistic. I can create ‘disruption’ and ‘lost edges’ to allow the viewer to fill in the blanks and add their own narrative to a shape.