The Autumn Auction 2020

Sisters in July is a snapshot of sisterhood. It is the starting point to consider the complex, joyous and sometimes difficult relationships with our family and friends.

Sisters in July was made this year while studying on the MA Painting programme at the Royal College of Art. Typically I start paintings working from a photograph, from which I trace out an initial sketch on canvas. From there the photograph is put away and slowly each limb, each shape, or section of colour is laid down and scraped away, added onto, covered over, erased again, until something sits right and speaks to the other parts around it. Like a puzzle, slowly revealing itself.

Currently in my practice I am working on a series of paintings based on the relationships between myself and my three sisters. I’m interested in the space between us, our relationship growing up together and what connects us as now as adults; how we support each other and what these female relationships mean to me as a woman now - both specifically with these three women, but also thinking about female relationships more broadly. Though a sisterhood is the root of my current work, I am thinking about being daughters, about motherhood, and indeed about humanity – at a time that feels so increasingly polarised both socially and politically, in my work I’m bringing togetherness to the forefront.

Accolades

Education: Royal College of Art, MA Painting, 2021, University of Brighton, BA Illustration, 2013. Chelsea College of Art, Foundation in Art + Design, 2010

Awards: The Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation, 2020, Grantee. Triangle Network Fellowship, Arts Council England, 2016.

Exhibitions: BSC presents, Blue Shop Cottage, London, 2020. After Hours, Bowes-Parris Gallery, London 2020. All These Gestures, Bowes-Parris Gallery, London. Reaction in Seclusion, Online exhibition, London, 2020. WIP Show, Royal College of Art, London, 2020.