Hold Your Horses

A celebration of the small, strange and wonderfully ordinary moments that make up a life.

There is a deep nostalgia running through these eight works. Not for a place as it is now, but for the world given to me as a child. Growing up surrounded by horses, animals and the open English countryside taught me a way of seeing. Noticing the small moments, finding companionship in unexpected places, and understanding nature as something to live alongside rather than look at.

Returning to these landscapes after time away, has brought those memories back into focus, and this collection is, in part, a thank you to the animals, the people, the muddy afternoons and the quiet freedom of growing up amongst them all. As an active participant rather than a passive bystander they molded me into the woman I am today, and I took that with me when I moved to the other side of the world. These paintings take old fragments and combine them with the vibrancy of my life now; new and old memories mix, and together they surpass reality, landing some place a little more colourful, playful and strange.

Interested in what happens when the mundane becomes a little theatrical,these imagined gatherings are playful, but they also explore a quieter idea of coexistence: a world where humans are not the centre of everything, but one part of a larger, interconnected landscape.

This is a slightly skewed version of reality. A place where mundane moments are brighter and slightly absurd. Turning the memories we carry with us into something close enough to recognise but not so close you can’t dream it into something strange and exciting.