Title

I'm Walking Beside You Painting

I'm Walking Beside You 

Oil and Paper 2025. 

420 × 594 mm 

This painting is part of a series I made back home on the Isle of Man. A return to drawing and painting that helped me reconnect with myself after a long period of illness. The landscapes in these works are the ones I grew up in: wild, wind-shaped trees, open fields, Celtic stones, and the colours of the island that have stayed with me no matter where I’ve gone.

At the centre of this piece is Bridie (our dog), the queen of sticks and the queen of my heart. She was with me through every step and every moment when I couldn’t take any steps at all. She walked beside me on the days I could make it outside, and lay beside me on the days I barely left my bed. This painting holds that quiet, steady companionship. The kind that doesn’t ask for anything, just stays.

I drew the landscapes outside and finished painting them indoors, trying to capture the slightly ghostly, wind-carved feeling that runs through all the work in this exhibition. These places are where I foraged the plants I later used to dye the textiles, the land and the work feeding into each other.

I’m Walking Beside You is a small thank you to Bridie, not for something small or secondary, but for a bond that was grounding, fierce, and completely life-changing. Animals don’t just keep us company; sometimes they carry us through.