Right Now I Am Connected to Infinite Possibilities

My biggest dream has always been to have my work out in the world—to be seen in galleries and in people's homes.

Ultimately, I make art for myself; it is my expression and my feeling. My work has evolved over time, maturing into something more free and intuitive, allowing my subconscious to guide the canvas.

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A Full Circle Moment

Growing Up at the End of the Line

I grew up in Chesham, a town at the very end of the Metropolitan line. As a teenager, my friends and I thought nothing of jumping on the Tube to head into central London. Later, as a university art student in the Midlands, I kept large London Underground posters on the walls of my student house—a sentimental connection back home. I loved going to the London Transport Museum in Covent Garden, and looking through the poster archives.

Which is why it is so meaningful and personal for me to soon have my work featured on a London Underground poster!

See Buoyant on the Underground

The Art Below campaign runs for 4 weeks starting October 5th, and you can spot Buoyant on the platforms at Regent's Park Station! The feature exhibition at Ad Lib Gallery in Wimbledon Village runs from October 8th – 25th.

I'm so excited, and full of anticipation, to have Buoyant so visible in the public domain at one of the busiest Underground stations in London — especially as it coincides with Frieze Art Fair in Regent's Park, and I love the thought of all the curators and creatives who may see my painting on their way through.

If you're in London during October, it's well worth a detour through Regent's Park station to see it in situ — and if you can make it to Wimbledon Village, the full exhibition is an even better excuse for a visit. It is meaningful and personal to me to have my work on a London Underground poster.

Abstract art taking shape in the studio.

Buoyant took shape over several months in the studio at Kemps Quay — worked and reworked in acrylic on a large canvas until the balance of shape, colour, line and pattern felt right. It's the kind of painting that happens in the quieter moments, in between teaching and studio inductions and the everyday business of running a creative space, when instinct is finally left alone to do its work.

A painting may not always be "of" a specific subject, but instead communicates a sense of emotion, character, and personality. Buoyant is a painting that does exactly that. I love asking viewers how it makes them feel, rather than what they see.

It feels fitting that Buoyant is the painting that will be out there for the world to see and marks the studio's first anniversary year — another sign that when you stay open to it, right now I am connected to infinite possibilities.

Painting as Practice, Teaching as Practice

This intuitive way of working isn't only how I paint, it's what I try to pass on in the studio too. When I teach abstract painting workshops at Jo Morley Studio, I'm not teaching people to copy a subject in front of them — I'm helping them get out of their own way for long enough to let something honest land on the canvas. It's often the students who say they "can't paint" who surprise themselves the most. If that sounds like your kind of creative outlet, our abstract painting workshops run throughout the autumn — details on the workshops page.

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