Schmoo is a classically trained oil painter living and working in the UK. She studied in Florence and dislikes talking about herself in the third person.

Although I have had several career changes through the years and even wrote for a living, writing about myself has never been easy. I originally earned my BA and MS in Biotechnology from Johns Hopkins University and spent my early days working in cancer research. When I left the lab it was to realise my dream of the visual arts. As a professional photographer I got to travel the world and tell human stories in a beautiful way, which is a core part of being a creator that I still love to this day. But over time the camera felt too fast, catching only a single moment out of many. And so I retrained as an oil painter, attending the Florence Academy of Art in Italy to study the techniques of the old masters in a traditional atelier environment.

In 2024 I graduated the certificate program and have since been painting in my private studio in South Wales.

Light is an essential part of photography just as it is for oil paint. I aim to explore this in context of the human experience, be it the glow on a landscape, along the features of our loved ones, or in its illuminating warmth within our homes.