Inspired by nature, my artwork expresses resilience, abundance and hope. As a working class woman born in Walsall, my early experience of growing up in a post-industrial town, lined with abandoned factories, disused canals, exuded a sense of apathy and inertia. Walsall’s glory days of a bustling leather making industry serving Victorian working horses with saddles is barely visible now, amongst its foreground of graffiti covered walls, vape and charity shops. When New Labour moved out in 2010, it stripped the town of the last of its vibrant nightlife and high street.

I found solace in the art studios of Walsall College where I studied a Foundation Degree in Art. Here, I discovered the glamorous and shimmering paintings of David Hockney’s Califorian series ‘A Bigger Splash’. And I experienced being transcended to an atmospheric and warm culture through Van Gogh’s ‘Cafe Terrace at Night’.

Being inspired by art fuelled me with hope that I could aspire to a better quality of life, surrounded by beauty, generosity and more fun.

For me, natural beauty encapsulates generosity with its infinite colour palettes, the millions of species of flowers existing in all shapes and sizes, and the resilience to adapt to all environments. I chose to paint with a sense of possibility with a little fun sprinkled in, to uplift the viewer and bring them back to nature, a tonic for the velocity and anxiety inducing contemporary life.

My painting process builds up layers of oil paint in an intuitive way. I want to create a sense of time passing in my artwork. I'm achieving a sense of both fragility and resilience of nature from the way I layer up paint. It is also a nod towards the urban environment I grew up in, telling social history in neglected factories and graffitied walls has always fascinated me.

Early on in my life I discovered how mindset affects the outcome of our lives. As thoughts lead to decisions we make, which essentially can either constrain or liberate us. We are part of nature, and can adapt and flourish too. Born near the city that invented ska, the West Midlands is a mixing pot of cultures and classes. I was raised as an egalitarian and think it’s even more important now to honour the voices of the down-trodden working class, and provide a voice of hope and resilience.