Woven by the Sea: How Fashion Led Me to a Life in Art

The ocean has always been my escape. Growing up in the city, the highlight of my year was always those weeks by the sea — the salt air, the endless horizon, the chance to breathe deeply and feel like myself again. It was my sanctuary from the busyness of everyday life, and over the years that pull only grew stronger.

What surprises many people is that I didn’t start out as an artist. My first career was in fashion — two decades in the industry, with ten of those years as a buyer in the surf world. It was fast-paced, exciting, and full of creativity. I loved working with fabric, forecasting trends, and telling stories through the clothes people wore. Looking back, that time gave me an instinct for detail, an understanding of materials, and a deep respect for how texture can shape the way something makes us feel.

Me with legendary world class surfer John John Florence in Hossegor on a buying trip

An article I wrote for Drapers Magazine talking all things surf retail

When I found my way back to painting, I instinctively starting using offcuts of surfboard fibreglass like a fabric, to build texture in my paintings. Gradually over time I started working directly onto clothing and footwear, but it was only recently I began adding scraps of fabric, denim, and offcuts from local makers into my pieces. I layered them into my seascapes, watching how they caught the light, how they held pigment, how they transformed the surface into something alive. Suddenly, I wasn’t just painting the sea — I was building it. The same fabrics that once told stories on bodies were now telling stories on canvas.

On a buying trip in London trialling a pair of my hand painted Converse trainers

It felt natural, almost inevitable, that my art would spill beyond traditional canvas. Retired surfboards became sculptures of memory, reimagined as ocean-inspired artworks. Denim jackets and jeans became wearable canvases, each one carrying the spirit of the tide. These pieces connect my two worlds — fashion and surf — with my enduring love of the ocean.

One of my recent hand painted jeans designs

For me, commissions are the most meaningful part of what I do. They’re not just paintings; they’re vessels of memory. I’ve worked with wedding couples who wanted sand from their ceremony beach captured in the texture of a canvas, families who asked me to weave in fabrics from holidays, and collectors who brought me boards that had ridden waves for years and wanted to see them reborn as art. Each commission holds a personal story — one that I get to honour, preserve, and transform into something lasting.

One of my repurposed surfboards ‘Big Waves’

That’s the heart of my work: connection. Connection to the sea, connection to materials, and connection to people’s lives. The ocean is more than just my subject — it’s my language. And through fabric, texture, and upcycled materials, I’ve found a way to tell stories that feel as layered and alive as the sea itself.

If you’d like to explore a commission — whether it’s a canvas, a surfboard, or a piece of wearable art — I’d love to hear your story.

Together, we can capture a memory of the ocean that feels uniquely yours.

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