I’m a visual artist based in Edinburgh. I'm originally from London, but I moved to Scotland in 2009 to go to art college, and have stayed here ever since.

My work is about all the things that interest me – visually that’s colour and light; pattern and repetition. It’s materials and paint, layers, shapes and lines. It’s symbols, words, language, and how things are connected. In a broader sense it’s travel, architecture, maps, swimming pools, the coast and the sea.

I make paintings, drawings, sculpture, screenprints and installations. I like to experiment with materials, and I often paint on metal, plastic and wood. Sometimes I paint directly on to a wall or building. My work looks very precise, but making it can sometimes be quite an unpredictable process. I often work intuitively, and I rarely know exactly what the finished work will look like when I start it.

I always prefer to work with materials that aren’t made specifically for artists – I buy metal from an industrial workshop, get my plywood from a supplier for boatbuilders, and often use household or car paint. I often layer up those materials to create abstract compositions, and to explore the relationship between two and three dimensions.

A big part of the work for me is preparing the surfaces I paint on to, and I spend a long time sanding and priming them in my studio until they behave as I want them to. It’s a tactile and messy process, and I often go home with sore arms.

Inside and outside the studio, my research involves reading, travelling, walking, photographing, drawing, sketching, scribbling notes, watching films and TV shows, listening to music and podcasts, and having conversations.

Before I went to art college I studied languages and then worked as a journalist. It gave me a curiosity about the world and other people, and an understanding that every person and every place has a story. I especially value doing artists’ residencies as they have always changed my work, expanded my outlook, and enabled me to meet some brilliant people. So far I’ve undertaken residencies in Scotland, Iceland, the USA and Morocco.

Image: Greg Macvean