JELLY: Have you been producing work during quarantine?

ALEX: It feels like I have been doing like four months of quarantine. I’m only just coming out of it now. I have had to stop and start loads over the last period. Finally, I’m painting again! It’s kind of bad sort of living in your studio. Here and at my last studio there are periods when I leave it less-and-less and you get kinda crazy about your work.

JELLY: Yeah, I know - you can get obsessive.

ALEX: Yeah, you don’t get away from the painting – it’s right there when you lie down and when you wake up.

JELLY: You can come in the next day and be so angry with yourself for not stopping earlier sometimes.

ALEX: Sometimes it is a good thing as you get more work done but, yeah, other times it isn’t so good. At the beginning, the only reason I had to live in my studio was financial – it was too expensive. I had a choice, it was either the studio or have somewhere to live! I say all that but, I love painting so much that when I am not here it is where I want to be.

JELLY: Yes, I have the same thing. When I go on holiday… I only rarely go away without my paints but when I do, after three days of not being in the studio I start getting a bit weird!