I am a figurative portrait artist working in coloured pencil and graphite on hardwood panel, across a wide range of scales. I draw the emotional states that live beneath the surface of intimate life — the private experience of children, mothers, and the bonds between them at moments when what is felt and what is permitted to be felt are not the same thing.

 

Every mark I make with graphite is a unit of time - lost, acknowledged and recovered. The crosshatching is the ultimate breaking free from my fears holding me down, the impact of society and cultural expectations. The figures emerge on the textured surface through the accumulated layers of crosshatching, as if the wood has always held them.

 

Nottingham based, I was born in Moldova, trained in Fine Art and Architecture, and spent years gathering cultural knowledge through travel and work across multiple creative disciplines. The turning point was becoming a mother. I was reborn and I returned to the only thing that was always, completely, naturally mine.