“There is no single meaning for the painting. Updraught’ is, in one instance, a literal depiction of our home renovations. As a former solicitors office, the building was filled with shelving and office furniture for stationery supplies. After all of this was removed, we found blocked fireplaces that needed opening, chimney flues that needed sweeping. Part of the recommissioning was to check the draught, a clear flue would draw the smoke up easily. The start of renovations came during a period of huge upheaval for me, soon after the death of my mother. It was a period when grief and depression obscured and choked the life I had known. The idea of restoration and renewal, the opening of spaces long blocked, and the glimpsing of light in impenetrable gloom, resonated strongly with me.”