Incredibly, I was never taught self expression in art class, I learned it through screenwriting. In the first part of this series I share the importance of discovering the WHY in art.

Creativity requires bravery. Could anxiety be a sign-post to boldness? My guest blog for The London Screenwriters’ Festival

When I choose a subject matter for a painting it's because I've uncovered a narrative I emotionally connect to.  This dialogue with the subject matter continues as I begin to paint. 

The value of exhibiting work publicly isn’t just exposure, it goes much deeper.

At the beginning of 2017 I said that I wanted to be creating large scale works by the end of the year. However, I never dreamed they would be *this* big! 

When my largest painting was displayed in my local coffee shop and a stranger saw it, wanted it and bought it, it changed everything for me. Read more to find out why.

Expressing the emotion of music with paint. Combining all of my expression experiments so far, I complete my first "Painting Music" canvas.

For the second exercise in my Painting Music series, I follow artist Paul Klee's guidance to create a very structured foundation to my piece.

It's been two years since I quit screenwriting and became an artist, but it hasn't been an easy transition.

During my Year of Expression, I’ve been creating a number of personal canvases over a period of time. Watch the progress of one piece expressing my emotional response to my work life.

I track my emotional state of mind over the course of a month with four paintings on one canvas. See the evolution of my "Mind" canvas.

I have canvases that contain weeks of hidden expressed emotion, layer upon layer, some small glimpse of each preceding day surviving, a frustrating daily battle of trying to answer the question "what am I trying to do here?"

They say trying something new is exciting. It's also extremely uncomfortable. I face more battles as I follow in Jackson Pollock's footsteps and attempt to paint the motion of music.

Why is composition so important to artists?  Because we want to control and manipulate you *mwa-haha* 

Inspired by artists Delaunay, Klee, Kandinsky and Pollock, I make my first attempt to spontaneously express the emotion of music in a painting.

With the birth of photography, modern artists sought to justify their work beyond realism and express their own unique way of seeing the world. This week I attempt to find my own answers to these questions.

I had big plans to deliver some great art in January. It was going to be lovely. However, I didn't envisage creating with a battle going on in my head. 

The Abstract Expressionist artists of the 20th century were the first to place value in painting an emotion as a subject matter and rebelled against image-based work.  In this introduction to my year of expression, I look at why this movement is so important to me.

2017 is all about being bold, stepping out and achieving more than I believe I can.  So I'm going BIG.

I'm thrilled to have won Pan MacMillan's Great Britain in Colour competition with my illustrations of my favourite UK places.