I use charcoal, pastel and oil paint and always from life in a sitting with a life model, my child and other children or a sitter. 

My portraits capture likeness and character using loose and expressive marks. The 'working drawing' underneath is often left visible, alongside marks where I have tested colours and textures. I work fast, always from one sitting and respectful and true to the time allocated for the sitting. There is an experimental aspect to these sessions as I prefer to choose colours and composition during the session and not plan too far ahead. 

If I am working with children the experimental aspect becomes riskier and exciting because the sitting is so much shorter and I invite them to collaborate on the portrait with me, once I have the basic likeness and structure drawn. The result is always unknown, but we tend to reach a lovely sweet spot where adult self conscious mark making collides with a childs unboundless creativity, often with unique and fascinating results.

My other figurative works start with drawings from life which are then introduced into a new narrative through re working using colour, composition and different marks. These works are about capturing my own lived experiences, such as the ambivalent, passionate, discombobulating feelings of love in motherhood, and reworking them visually to express the emotional complexities of that particular moment, which at the time were very difficult to verbalise.