About Me
Artist:
The London Mall Galleries have shown two of my oil-paintings. I have a passion for romance, spirituality and eroticism, with my work predominantly revolving around the female form and nature. I focus on life-drawing, oil painting, Japanese ink and watercolour work.
I derive inspiration from works by Mark Demsteader, William Turner, and more recently from the joy, ornamentation and complexity in Klimt; and in Schiele the honesty and angst in his very expressive, intimate works, which I had the privilege of seeing in Austria this year. In complete contrast, I enjoy the simplicity of Japanese line drawings and Zen paintings in which essences are expressed and reduced to minimal forms.
Composer:
Grapheme-Colour, Chromesthesia, Spatial-Sequence Synaesthesia and Number-Form Synaesthesia are present throughout my compositions. I write music based on a natural, overwhelming colour scheme and structural form that appears in my mind. For example, ‘Night Circus’ was set in purple and burgundy, inspired by the landscape of Schoenberg’s, ‘Pierrot Lunaire’. I was inspired by his strong imagery of the moon, death, violence and nature, with surreal and avant-garde figures. I often compose in response to paintings or visuals, pulling music from the tone of a painting. Rather than using specific key signatures; colour palettes, imagery and intuition help to direct my tonal choices. Recently, I wrote a piece called ‘Puppet Nuit’, based on a painting by Egon Schiele entitled ‘Cardinal & Nun’ to bring an angular, awkward and intimate quality to the piece. I based my tonality on the dark red and green hues. I feel my synaesthesia is a constant, unique tool in my composition process.
I have studied vocals and piano throughout my education, completing my degree at King’s College London with an Advanced Performance Recital in Singing, a First-Class portfolio of Composition and an overall grade of 2:1.This year, I will resume piano studies and hope to achieve my ABRSM Dip / LRSM grade. Prior to KCL, I achieved Grade 8 in both singing and piano whilst studying Music, Art and Film A Levels. I am inspired by Fazil Say’s ‘Black Earth’, the violin line of Carter Burwell’s ‘The End of Macbeth’(0.58), Schoenberg’s ‘Verklärte Nacht’ and ‘Pierrot Lunaire’, Scriabin and Rachmaninoff, Mark Korven’s ‘The Witch’. Along with literature such as, Author, Clarissa Pinkola Estés and her disturbing and psychic stories in ‘Women Who Run With The Wolves’, Haruku Murakami ‘Norwegian Woods’ and The Grimm Brothers. I enjoy portraying intense imagery in music, such as romance, lust and death, winter, night and turmoil. Recently, I have explored themes of the unreal i.e., fairytales, puppetry, the circus, folkore and witchcraft: “Music can name the unnameable and communicate the unknowable” – Leonard Bernstein. My practice in jazz singing has taught me useful improvisation skills, too.
Mind & Body:
I have a love for the mind, body and soul, learning and practicing wellness modalities. I honour the female body and feel strongly that we should value our natural rhythms and cycles. We should practice sensuality and a connection to our bodies, priotising healing and self-love. Midwife, Jane Hadwicke Collins and Sophie Walker, Sexologist’s - Juliet Allen and Kim Anami, Author’s - Clarissa Pinkola Estes and Maisie Hill and Ina - May Gaskin, Artist’s Hitomi Mochizuki, Anastasia and Julia Vanderbyl are among many women who have guided me through my own spiritual growth. I sell organic wellness products that support the mind and body along this journey of self discovery, these can be found in the ‘gift shop’ section of this website.
