Suffering from a connective tissue disorder and enduring endless calls to try and get benefits, the poet and novelist turned to painting – resulting in work that could change perceptions of disabled people

Daisy Lafarge was lying on the floor in excruciating pain when she started her latest paintings. A severe injury, coupled with a sudden worsening of her health, had left her unable to sit upright, while brain fog and fatigue made reading and writing impossible. So the award-winning novelist and poet fell back on her art school training, using the energy and materials she had to hand to create impressionistic paintings of her surroundings – her cat Uisce, her boyfriend’s PlayStation controller – alongside unsettling imagery of enclosed gardens and flowers decaying.

“Making the paintings was a way of coexisting with pain,” says the 34-year-old. “I was on my living room floor in agony for a few hours, but I wanted to get something out of that time. I’ve always been fascinated by artists and writers who turn limitations into formal constraints. I see the paintings as my attempt at that.”