Being an art student, and there not being any avenue, any realistic avenue for selling work. All of us at art college took supplementary jobs and had portfolios full of artwork with no means of selling the work we were making. This was before the affordable art fairs and before the e-commerce world. There were the railings at Bayswater, and then there were physical galleries, representing so few artists with much higher price points, and there was nothing else really, nowhere to sell work and that always stayed with me; the thought that there were lots of talented artists making wonderful work with no means of selling it. At the same time there were people who would have really loved to buy the work.. But I couldn’t work out how to do it, because the overheads of having a space were just too high to sell lower price-point pieces by artists just starting out. Then I went to live in Botswana for two years when I came back in 1999 and everyone was online! I think the shock of the contrast was particularly potent and the internet became an obvious route.. New Blood Art was born a few years later.

I go to the degree shows, the work jumps out..

I love paint, oil paint, though am developing a real fondness for textiles!

What a great question. We raised our first round of investment via crowdfunding last year. That felt special - getting this investment over the line and seeing all the support that we have. And then, every year at the degree shows finding these amazing artists, it’s so exciting to discover a stand-out emerging artist. I deliberately travel off the beaten track to the art colleges that get less exposure – from the top to the bottom of the UK.

he bedroom. It’s a real sanctuary from the working day, feeling somehow buffeted from life and I think the picture you look at, or whatever you look at last thing at night and first thing in the morning influences the unconscious and has a subtle and important impact on how you feel. I think you need to feel inspired by what you see when you wake up and safe and nurtured when you go to sleep. I chose a piece by an artist that we used to show called Katherine Jones – she’s a really good example of what we do at New Blood Art, an artist we showed many years ago who has gone on to gain critical relevance. Katherine is now a Royal Academician, and I bought one of her prints called A House In The Woods and it’s one of my favourite pieces, it’s a particularly nurturing and inspiring - I love it!