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"Once upon a time there was a little girl called Samantha Jane who loved to draw and play with her dolls. Being a quiet sort of child, she spent a lot of  time immersed in her story books too; Beatrix Potter, Bramley Hedge and Grandmother Lucy to name a few. As a teenager of the 70s and 80s she would pour over the fashion illustrations and make up tips of Jackie magazine, watch Top of the Pops and every Friday, dance at Harrow Leisure Centre disco. Still a 'sometimes' shy adult, still a bit awkward at times; this is how she's made sense of it all."

After a lifetime of collecting visual references, I paint big-eyed females suspended between adolescence and adulthood; awkward, watchful, romantic and defiant. Their expressions are often difficult to place; shy but confrontational, fragile yet self-aware, as though they are caught in the moment of becoming.

I am drawn to the visual language of my early teens; pop culture, beauty columns, agony aunt pages, bedroom walls and the emotional intensity of growing up female. Family holidays would involve visits to ancient basilicas, and although we weren't a religious family, I was fascinated by the imagery of the scared and devotional art on display. Those sad looking intense gazes I see in my own painted female faces, almost Saint-like. These references are painted through a nostalgic retro lens. The exaggerated eyes in my work act as emotional amplifiers. They invite connection, revealing an inner world that feels intimate but ultimately unreadable. I am interested in the awkward tension between wanting to be seen and wanting to disappear.

At the heart of my paintings is an interest in femininity, nostalgia and the beauty of awkwardness.

Thank you for being part of my continuing story!