In an immaculate Victorian semi in leafy Islington lives painter Sally Fuerst, her boyfriend, Luca, and her tabby cat, Mo. Oh and a six-foot inflatable dinosaur. 'He’s for a new piece I’m working on called Godzilla,' she explains when she catches me staring at the big green blow-up monster dominating her front room.

In person, Sally is as playful and fun as her work – smiley and giggling in her Captain America T-shirt, loose Longstocking plaits and lip piercings. Her oil paintings are often mistaken for photographs because they’re so minutely detailed and hyper-real. And while the medium might be conventional, the subject matter is anything but. As you might have gathered from the giant lizard it’s fair to say Sally doesn’t go in for your average still-life.

'People think of figurative painting as being for landscapes or big battle scenes,' admits Sally. 'So I like the fact I’m taking this technique and applying it to something surreal and celebratory. I call myself a ‘neo pop painter’. I’ve always been drawn to pop art because it has elements that you recognise so you instantly form a connection with it, and that’s a good place to start.' 

Riffing off nursery rhymes and fairy tales, her recent compositions include ‘Goldilocks and The Three Pandas’, ‘Little Bo Peep and her Inflatable Sheep’ and a woman dressed as a donut taking a bite out of a donut-shaped rubber ring. 'It’s a cannibalistic donut,' Sally explains helpfully. There’s definitely an element of the grotesque alongside the camp kitschness in her work, a worm in the bright red storybook-perfect apple.

Sourcing her props and costumes from fancy dress shops and eBay – 'I’m on there all the time: things come up that you don’t even know you need, like a taxidermy moose or a plastic Ken doll wig' – Sally then sketches her idea out, casts a model, dresses them up ('I always feel bad because most of them are serious fashion models and I’m like ‘OK just put this inflatable seal between your legs!'') and then takes hundreds of photographs of the scene she’s just created as a reference point to paint from later.

'I often worry that because I just paint women people think I’m making a grandiose statement about feminism, but it’s more that I just find the female form inspiring to paint. There’s so many beautiful women and I just want to make something beautiful. Because I see the world from a female perspective I think a male model would feel out of place.'

Born in Connecticut, Sally studied fine art in New York and was classically trained in Florence – 'My mom was a fashion illustrator so there was always art around growing up, but for me it’s always been about painting' – and, in 2009, she moved to London to study at The London Atelier of Representational Art. 'LARA was great because I learnt very traditional techniques like life drawing and cast painting, but as soon you stepped out the door you’re in London! Florence was historical and beautiful but I did feel cut off from what was going on at times.'

Sally’s work is now exhibited in fairs around the world, including India and Singapore and a group show at the Scream gallery London. But what happens to all the inflatable lizards, donuts and elephants? 'Oh they’re all in storage somewhere,' she explains gleefully. 'I should have a big exhibition of them all some day!' That or the best Halloween party ever.

Sally Fuerst's work appears in Telling Tales which runs until Saturday February 8 2014 at Scream, 27-28 Eastcastle Street, London W8 (020 7268 9857; www.screamlondon.com).