Born in 2002 in Bolton, United Kingdom, Courtney emigrated to Ireland with her family at a young age. In 2018, her father died following a diabetic coma induced by alcohol.

Courtney’s practice considers how addiction can steal and blur a life within the home, ghosting figures and relationships as it tears through families. While parents may turn towards escapism, children are often left desperately reaching out for stability and connection. Grief lies at the centre of her practice, particularly through the experience of growing up as a child of an alcoholic which Courtney explores by reflecting on old photographs, home videos and comparing these moments to the present day.

Through the act of painting, figures dissolve into ghost-like presences, reflecting memories that feel both present and distant. The surfaces become a process of piecing together fragments of the past, including lost opportunities, relationships, and moments of time that could have been shared, alongside the present where these emotional distance of addiction is confronted and examined. The nest emerges as a metaphor for the home, a space associated with comfort and protection, yet within the work it is presented as fragile, vacant, or lacking warmth. Alongside the nest, the starling appears throughout as a representation of the artist’s father. Courtney places these elements in conversation with the Irish wood she works on, such as sycamore and beech, linking the material to the idea of homeplace and sites of nesting, and drawing a parallel between domestic and natural space.