My journey as an artist began in late 2020, just a few weeks before my 45th birthday. Attracted to colours and shapes, I had spent the previous year binge-watching hundreds of YouTube videos before I finally plucked up the courage to have a go at something myself. I started experimenting with acrylics before moving to ink and East Asian-inspired art. I began exploring charcoal in 2021 following the passing of a much-loved family pet, and added pastels to my repertoire in 2025 after a pastel pencil demonstration sparked my curiosity

Coming from a background in the sciences, I approached art through observation, experimentation and a desire to understand how things worked. Throughout that journey, I have developed my skills independently through many hours of drawing, practising, experimenting and learning from each piece. That process of continual discovery still lies at the heart of my practice today.

I am an autistic artist who also lives with a range of other neurological disabilities, each of which plays a part in the way I create art. I was diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder at the age of 34, and that diagnosis eventually helped me better unû]&derstand both my relationship with art and how I experience the subjects I draw. My sensory differences affect the way I draw, while my ability to hyperfocus allows me to become deeply absorbed in a piece, noticing subtle details of expression, structure and character. What can sometimes be an intense way of experiencing the world has become an important part of the way I make art.

I work in a style known as Expressive Realism, combining recognisable form and careful observation with expressive mark-making and selective detail. I often begin with the eyes, using them as an anchor from which the rest of the animal gradually develops. Some areas may be carefully resolved while others are deliberately left suggested, allowing the viewer’s own eye and imagination to participate in the finished piece.

I have a particular interest in endangered and vulnerable species. My work focuses on character, presence and individuality rather than simply reproducing what I see in a photograph.

All of my original artwork is created freehand, without tracing, grids or mechanical transfer methods. I use reference photographs purely as a starting point, interpreting each subject through my own observation and artistic response rather than attempting to reproduce the photograph exactly.

At the heart of my work is a desire to create more than a technically accurate representation of an animal. Whether it is the direct gaze of an endangered primate or the movement of charcoal across a surface, I want each finished piece to convey something of the animal’s character and leave the viewer feeling that they have encountered an individual, rather than simply looked at an image.