Sophie's work explores primarily coastal landscapes in Cornwall and Scotland. Living by the Helford River, she loves to walk her dog and swim, seeking to restorative calm of being in nature. This extends into her painting, which begins outdoors, using gouache to create small paintings capturing the landscape, it's shapes, colours, light and weather. These initial pieces are richly hued and layered, sometimes with material from the site itself, and accompanied by written prose to capture the story, and then filed into her sketchbooks.
In her studio, they develop, into larger oil and acrylic paintings, that capture the initial response but also have a sense of time through the layered colours.
Sophie loves to find the hidden and surprising colour in the neutrals, the shadows, the skies.
Influenced by a range of artists from Turner, Cezanne and Monet to the Group of Seven and Eardley, her work prioritises colour, drawn-in mark making, weather and light to share her response to a place.
After graduating with a first class degree from the Slade School of Art, Sophie worked in user experience before returning to painting, reigniting her practice while sailing around Scotland's west coast. In 2020 she moved to live in Cornwall near the Helford River and built her studio near the water.