My work explores the energy of place: the visual and emotional experience of landscape, and the stories we attach to the places that shape our lives. I am particularly interested in using natural phenomena to explore memories and emotions.

My deep connection with landscape began in childhood through regular journeys to Iran, from my grandparents’ village in the desert to the lush landscapes of northern Iran and the Caspian coast, alongside family travels through Europe and further afield. I later lived for some time in Scotland. These experiences exposed me to an extraordinary diversity of landscape, light and culture, as well as to the great art collections of Europe, and instilled in me a lasting fascination with the natural world and the powerful emotional responses particular places can evoke.

I am particularly interested in the idea of peak experience – moments of overwhelming joy, connection or transcendence often encountered through nature and art – and our collective memories of these. Painting allows me to explore these experiences and, in doing so, create new stories around a place and the people with whom it is shared. I have always been interested in human experience and have a background in psychology as well as art.

More recently, my work has begun to consider our relationship with the natural world. I have been exploring my fascination with wild landscapes and how inaccessible wild nature is, and have become very interested in rewilding as a way to preserve our natural places and, in fact, allow them to flourish. My landscapes are my way of accessing that elusive wildness.

I work predominantly in oil on a large scale, building works through layers of paint. My process is intuitive and energetic; I work quickly, responding to the visual information, thoughts and feelings gathered from particular places and experiences. I believe, however, that a painting will always find itself through a process of responding to each mark, texture and colour with another, and constantly re-evaluating the work as a whole.

I usually start with an idea and work through the paintings using lots of photos as source material. I use the process of painting to discover what the heart of the subject matter is. I think the physical time spent painting also allows me to arrive at this. When I am clearer on my subject matter, I will start researching ideas in sketchbooks and making small side works on paper and smaller canvases.

My influences are predominantly the Old Masters: Turner, Constable and Rubens. I am currently researching Turner’s late work for my project ‘Watching the Leaves’ and his use of glazes and patches of impasto to explore light. I am also passionate about Frank Auerbach and Willem de Kooning, particularly their expressive approaches to colour, movement, material and the physical act of painting.

Over the past twenty years, I have developed a professional practice through exhibitions, gallery representation and direct relationships with collectors. In recent years, I have also curated and produced my own exhibitions, building a strong and engaged collector base. I live with my two children in rural Oxfordshire and work in a studio at the bottom of my garden.