As a kid, two things absorbed me completely — reading and drawing. I did have a brief flirtation with ballet, but the less said about that the better.

When I got to art school at sixteen, one of my favourite pastimes was rooting through the art library. I got a real thrill from finding surprising connections between the artists I admired. Christopher Isherwood led me to the Sachlichkeit artists, which led to Hans Fallada, which led to Günter Grass. I would pull on a loose thread and all these connections unravelled before my eyes.

That same pull is what drives the Pattern Chronicles.

Art has always travelled. Symbols, patterns and preoccupations have moved between cultures throughout history — absorbed, transformed, and carried forward by every new encounter. This cross-pollination sits quietly at the heart of my portrait work, and the Pattern Chronicles is where I think out loud about all of it.

If you enjoy unravelling loose threads, I'd love you to follow along — and I'd love to hear about your own discoveries too. Please do get in touch.