I am a storyteller, painter and puppeteer. Since 2018, I’ve been sharing, translating and interpreting stories for children and their adults at The Story Museum, Oxford. My paintings are a continuation of my storytelling practice: visual narratives, drawing from my work as a performer in children’s theatre and television and as a published children’s author and illustrator. I make paintings on upcycled windows using the window as a canvas and storyboard.

It started with a storm. I was thinking about the Storm Cat from the book Mousehole Cat (Nicola Bayley/Antonia Barber), when I painted a storm lantern on our window at home. Bizarrely, Storm Bert arrived the next day on 24 November 2024. We were all looking for Sanctuary. By the beginning of January, I was still looking for light in the darkness and decided to go for the theme of Gothic on Glass for Artweeks 2025. Last year I painted sunsets and moonlight. This time I’m playing with fire, painting on glass with gouache for ephemeral works and transparent paints for permanent art.

While looking at Gothic Architecture in Oxford, I revisited Godstow Abbey. I arrived in thunder and lightning, a gift from above for my painting Storm In An Abbey. There is an information board there about the burial of the Mistress of King Henry II in 1176. I’d forgotten Dante Gabriel Rossetti painted her, his red-headed ‘Fair Rosamund’. I fell in love with his sister Christina’s poem, Goblin Market and Lizzie… Like a beacon left alone/In a hoary roaring sea/Sending up a golden fire,/Like a fruit-crowned orange-tree. Next, I found my own fiery muse and living model with red hair, a powerful woman and role model in our family. Her spirit lives in my paintings of Lizzie, The Fiery Antidote who saved her sister, Laura. Even the fiercest spirit would need an ally to counter dark magic. Enter the raven...