After six intense months immersed in creating a new body of work for my Arts Council England DYCP-supported collection, the moment came to step away from the studio. With the final pieces complete, I packed up the car and hit the road – a long-awaited road trip from Manchester to Amsterdam and back again. A journey to rest, to see new places, to absorb, and, perhaps most importantly, to feel free again.

The route wove its way from Manchester, crossed into France then onwards to Antwerp and finally Amsterdam.

In Amsterdam, I took photos of things that caught my eye – the unintentional beauty of objects left behind. We took a ferry north of the city to Texel.

One of the unexpected highlights was Lisse – a late-summer detour to see the flower fields. Not the springtime explosion of tulips the region is known for, but a different palette: softer & faded. There's something deeply moving about blooms past their peak. I found myself thinking about cycles, about endings, and how beauty shifts shape.

On the journey home, we stayed in Mechelen and Calais and ended the trip in Dungeness, Kent – a surreal, dreamlike landscape where land meets sea in stark simplicity. The textures there – shingle, rusting metal, wind-blown weeds – felt like found sculptures in their own right.

Now, back in Manchester, I'm unpacking. Sorting through the photos, the sketches and mental notes. Ideas are starting to surface.