About Me

Here are some facts about me in no particular order.

🎨My favourite artists are Basquiat, Picasso, Cy Twombly and Jackson Pollock. I love abstract art and making art that’s experimental, colourful and unique.

🎨I love blues music and listen to it a lot when I paint. At the moment, I’m really into Darondo, Bill Withers and Nina Simone.

🎨I read a lot. Mostly thrillers, horror and literature. I prefer novels with dark, gritty, challenging vibes. I can’t do slushy or sentimental at all. For some reason, I like my fiction quite bleak and disturbing. I’m not sure what that says about me.

🎨I grew up in Oxford and went to Cherwell School and d’Overbroecks. I studied at Cardiff University and Oxford Brookes.

🎨For the first three decades of my life, I struggled a lot with feeling awkward, overwhelmed and out of step with the world, but I didn't understand why. In my early thirties I was diagnosed as autistic, and everything finally made sense. My diagnosis was profound for me and has improved my life in ways that are hard to put into words.

🎨I got back into art at this time.

🎨I wanted to be an artist when I was a kid, but I also wanted to be a writer. I decided to go down the writing path, got a first class degree in English and Sociology and then studied journalism. I’ve worked as a reporter for a local paper in Oxford and also for a newspaper in London, and I’ve held various trade journalism jobs and communications roles too. In my late twenties, I pursued fiction writing and got some book deals with Big Five publishers for thrillers and also (years ago) rom coms. I’ve also self-published novels and novellas too. I still love to write.

🎨I'm half Greek and half Irish.

🎨I have a pomeranian chihuahua called Bella who is twelve years old. I’ve had her since she was a puppy and she’s always by my side.

🎨I love being in nature. I used to live in Wales and I absolutely adored spending time in the countryside there: the Brecon Beacons, the forests, the stunning coastlines. I still try to get into nature as much as possible.

🎨 I really want to do the NC500 around the north of Scotland this year.

🎨I paint mostly using house paint. I like the texture of it. It’s thick and it packs a punch on the canvas. Oils are too fussy for me; they take too long to dry. Acrylics are too watery. I haven’t bothered with watercolour since I was at school. I get most of my paint from Freecycle. People give away pots after decorating and I’m all over it.

🎨All my paintings are instinctive. I don’t plan. I just relax and go with the flow. Painting is probably the only time my monkey brain actually settles down.

🎨I love listening to audiobooks and often have them on when I’m painting. Books I’ve listened to recently while painting include Henry Henry by Allen Bratton, Dracula by Bram Stoker and A Week in December by Sebastian Faulks.

🎨I believe in being kind and fair to people. Reading the play An Inspector Calls by J.B.Priestley at school had a big impact on me and has informed by approach to life. You never know what someone might be dealing with, and your casual unkindness or cruelty could be their final straw.

🎨 Growing up I was obsessed with Radiohead, and Thom Yorke was a huge inspiration to me. Whenever I'm feeling creatively flat I watch his video for Lotus Flower which is just pure creativity to me. Other creatives who have hugely inspired me include Madonna, Jarvis Cocker, Sinead O'Connor, Andy Warhol, Basquiat, Picasso, Bret Easton Ellis, Freddie Mercury, Katie Jane Garside, Coco Rosie, and Lori Mira Belli. Anyone who marches to the beat of their own drum inspires me.

🎨 My first job was washing dishes and clearing tables at The Nosebag (Oxford locals will get this). I still miss that cafe.

🎨 Artweeks is one of my favourite things about Oxford, and I'm so excited to be taking part in May. Come along. At the very least, there will be nibbles!