One of my favourite subject matters is interiors. I often think about why this is, why I am constantly attracted to celebrating rooms, to the way a space operates and how the elements work together to create a mood. 

Part of it is to do with the idea of sanctuary which interests me greatly. I also feel that interiors offer us clues about the people who live there and ask us to imagine how they live, what their lives are like, what kind of people they are. Rooms are settings for our stories, where we play out the events of our lives and where we go to recharge before venturing out again.

In my art practice, I often use real rooms as inspiration (particularly from the wonderful instagram account @roomportraitclub by S.J. Axelby which is a constant source of joy and delight). Sometimes however, I make composites of real and imaginary spaces, stripping things out, adding things in, changing colours. One artwork where I have done this is Interior with Green Wall which is based on a section of my own home. The main focus is the zebra arm chair - a much-loved chair I ‘borrowed’ from my parents’ home when I was in my early twenties and never gave back…  Growing up, the cushions were green, and they still are, beneath the new upholstery which I sewed myself (very badly). It has a twin which is covered in leopard upholstery and they still  make me smile when I return home to my own sanctuary and see them waiting (often cradling a sleeping cat). These chairs have travelled with me, a constant through many changes of homes, relationships, careers and life upheavals. In many ways these chairs are what marks out a new space as a home for me.

Another ingredient from real life in this artwork is the gallery wall. This one contains a mixture of actual and aspirational artworks, each one acting as a portal to a memory or a celebration of an admired artist. I will just point out one here - an artwork I have yet to create anywhere else - a view into a shallow box displaying the delicious bounty of a mushroom foraging expedition I went on near Lithgow. To look at that small painting reminds me of the magical morning wrapped up in coats and scarves where we stepped over mossy logs under pine trees searching for saffron milkcaps in a group of newly educated mushroom hunters. Our eyes had been opened to stop and slow down and look and wonder - something that art does too. It reminds me of the friends I travelled with that day and then I think of the many adventures we have had together, often in beautiful natural settings. It reminds me of frying up pan after pan of those mushrooms, my niece and nephew standing beside me, eagerly waiting for their chance to smother a piece of toast with tasty slices of bright orange fungi… 

Those are just some of the stories that this artwork holds. Perhaps I will tell you more another time.

Limited edition giclee prints are available of Interior with Green Wall on my website.