The story behind ‘Where the Footsteps Planted’
‘Where the Footsteps Planted’ is a collection of abstract paintings about motherhood, inspired by the places I’ve travelled this summer with my two young girls. Rather than a finite collection, it’s something that I’m building and adding to over time, as you do with daily life.
It’s a summer of transitions for me: my youngest has just started nursery, my eldest is getting ready to start school, and I’ve returned more to self-employed work. It feels like a pocket of time when we’re in between, mostly in held in our own family bubble before we join up fully with the world again. It’s also been properly hot, and I’ve wished more than once that our local park had more shade or that we lived on a tube line with air con.
Snapdragons at Hestercombe House, Somerset
My girls and I often adventure around the city taking in all that London has to offer, just us or with friends, and this summer we also escaped the city on family trips to Somerset and Dartmoor. We’ve been to some beautiful places, though rather than sitting and taking in the view, I tend to catch them in glimpses: my baby’s fast, determined feet as she gets close to an edge, half a look at the blowing grasses while my girls run off in different directions and I try to scoop them both up.
That energy is what’s gone into these paintings. They’ve been made in nap times, sometimes with my eldest colouring beside me at the dining table while my husband takes video calls across the room. Or in the pocket of an unexpectedly cancelled meeting, or once the girls are asleep and I can’t put the spark of an idea down.
Scorched grasses in Springfield Park, Hackney
I’m proud of this emerging collection. It’s not always the easiest thing to say out loud but I’ve stood back more than once mid-painting and let out an ‘ooh’ or an ‘Oh, I love this!’ The pieces in this body of work hold the spirit of this particular summer: watching where small footsteps plant themselves and the memories that come with them. They mark something important in my practice, at this stage of my life.
And I hope they hold something for you too. If you’d like to enquire about buying a piece from the collection, or commissioning a painting from memories of your own, get in touch - I’d love to hear from you.
'Where the Footsteps Planted', Acrylic on kraft paper, 29.7 × 42cm A3, August 2026
