Dear New York

What pieces or projects have you been working on lately?
For the last several months I've been creating a new body of work for a solo exhibition with Isabel Sullivan Gallery in New York City. Isabel has taken over the upper floor of the iconic Jim Kempner gallery in Chelsea and this will be both my first US solo exhibition and her first exhibition in this space. It's a very colourful exhibition which is relatively new to me and I've had so much fun painting it.

What did you learn (or unlearn) while working on them?
I was surprised to realised while painting it how serious I've been for the last year or two, and with these pieces I learned how to have fun painting again. I couldn't stop painting and honestly I could have painted about four exhibitions worth of work, I was just having such a good time.

What words, ideas or emotions were going through your head?
The work in this show is a love letter to New York City which was my home before I moved to the UK. Each piece is about a specific memory in a specific place in the City, so I was thinking a lot about New York, my memories and the concept of home.

Were there any conversations, movies, music, or books that made their way into that work?
One of the pieces is called "Gershwin at the Philharmonic" which is, unsurprisingly, about one of my favourite concerts I went to at the New York Philharmonic where they performed Rhapsody in Blue. I listened to Gerswhin while painting it and I think you can feel it in the finished piece.

What's been the most difficult thing you've faced recently in your creative process?
The most difficult thing I faced while painting this show was time. I have a baby who was between four and eight months old while I was painting this show, and I had to wake up early and paint before anyone else in the house was awake. Being an artist who is also a mother takes a lot of flexibility and determination.

What is your favorite coffee shop and why do you like going there?
My work is very solitary so I've come to rely on coffee shops over the years to get me out of the studio. Because of this I have a deep love and appreciation for coffee shops and have a list of favourites from the cities I've lived in. In New York my favourite is Sensuous Bean on the Upper West Side, it's the most incredibly smelling place in the world. In York, England my favourite coffees were from Partisan, Stanley & Ramona and The Pig & Pastry. Here in London I go to my local which is Momentum.

If your life were a movie this month, what would it be called and who would write the soundtrack?
If my life were a movie this month the title would be "Empire State of Mind" and the soundtrack would be a cheesy combination of all the famous New York songs - JayZ, Lou Reed, Billy Joel, Frank Sinatra.

Which studios, laboratories, or workshops have you collaborated with recently or would you like to collaborate with in the future?
I finished a collaboration earlier this month with a wonderful company called PerfumerH here in London. Lyn, the owner, is the most incredible perfumer with an unbelievably refined understanding of her craft. I painted two pieces to serve as visuals for her fragrance "Ink" which were these deep swirling blue paintings. I loved the synesthetic challenge of creating the visual representation of a scent.

Recommend one or more artists you follow who inspire you, and tell us what you like most about their work or their way of working.
There are so many artists whose work I greatly admire and too many of them I've only met or seen online, so here I'll mention a few that I had the chance to meet in person last month. Florence Houston is a wonderful painter with a keen sense of colour. Her work is beautifully crafted, but full of playfulness as well. Nancy Nicholson is a textile artist whose elegant pieces make me feel calm and connected to the earth in a grounding, beautiful way. Laxmi Hussain is a painter whose punchy blue portraits of motherhood are both bold and soft. Sophie Sellu is a sculptor and woodworker making the most refined, elevated brushes and objects in a style that seems to have a language of its own.