I love the early stages of a painting project, before even the paint goes down; I often tell myself that I could just call these early stages finished but it never sits comfortably with me. Black and white paintings/drawings are so effective, full of drama and simplicity but the desire to add colour always wins me over.

Being a self-confessed control freak, I can tie myself in knots when there’s a shift in my work – whether that shift is intentional or not, my instant reaction is to pick up the shift, drop everything else and GO GO GO! When what I should be doing is slowing down, gently encouraging these shifts, giving them time and space to breathe; to take their own shape.

During my years working in Construction, Continuing Professional Development was very much a tick the box exercise for me. I was always too wrapped up in the day-to-day stress of the job to sit back reading about what I was (or wasn’t in most cases!) experiencing for real on live building sites. But that’s different now – maybe because I’m older & wiser but maybe it’s simply that now I’m doing something I really like and so I genuinely want to do all I can to do it well and do well at it.