My art is inspired by memories, recollections and feelings. I work from photographs to create a feeling of the emotional connection between me and the subject. I am sometimes an interested observer, and more recently an active participant.

When I am creating a representational piece, I work from a photograph, creating initial sketches and studies, to create a design, a likeness of the figure and a mood for the piece. I then create a background either with paint, or an open weave fabric called scrim which I embellish onto the fabric, or a combination. Finally I stitch the figure.

Other pieces evolve, starting with intuitive marks which resolve into an idea, for example a painting of three pots. There were layers of abstract paint until the shapes of the pots appeared – inspired by the pot I had recently been given made by my great aunt.

I am now exploring combining all these elements - paint, stitch, fabric, collage - to create more abstracted representational images.