Your shopping cart is empty.
About Me
Bio
As a child I taught myself to draw and paint by copying animals and horses out of books on an almost daily basis. I still have some of those early drawings – they were terrible (see example opposite which I use to inspire my art students that not all artist's are 'born with it' and that therefore you can get better if you work at it!).
Then in 1979 I did a foundation course at Chelsea and then a degree course at Brighton where I graduated in 1983 with a fine art degree in sculpture. I then worked in a studio on the seafront for a while making sculptures with an architect for clubs and hotels.
On moving to East Grinstead in the late 80's, I began painting for an art agent that specialised in animal, people and bespoke portraits and soon became reasonably skilled at ‘classical’ style painting which I continued to do for over 15 years.
Like most artists - especially female ones I suspect - I struggled to divide my time between art, raising a child, work commitments and other obligations. It was therefore not until I was almost 50, menopausal and a bit mad that I finally found myself enough time to experiment and find out what I really wanted to do as an artist.
Two other factors helped me at this point:
1. Some nice people invented the internet so I could sell my art in online art galleries.
2. I become an art tutor so that I could keep evolving as an artist by helping other people to become artist’s plus not die of starvation as I pursued my art career more intensely.
l have a great love and respect for all artists and art forms – especially those pushing important humanitarian, aesthetic and ecological messages but established fairly recently that my own message is simply one of being able to provide a temporary escape to people and hopefully one that will uplift them. I am a *Scientologist and therefore lean far more towards spiritual concerns rather than material ones.
*For those who are curious or who don't know what Scientology really does for people or have heard weird things about it, I invite you to keep an open mind and watch some Scientology TV
My creativeness is helped by listening to BBC radio 6 music, irreverent comedy, walking and looking at things, eating cake, sitting in fields and imagining things.
My Art Style
Although I do have a degree in fine art, I was painting for many years before I could define what my personal style was. It took learning to draw accurately, learning to paint traditional animal portraits, trying all sorts of mediums and techniques before I finally realised I did have a ‘painting style’. This only became obvious to me a few years ago and it only happened once I had enough technical skills under my belt to feel confident enough to be more experimental. I found that what I wanted to paint was places and things that were a little bit mystical and that I could escape into. I wanted to paint things that were reminiscent of real places but with something else enchanting them a little. I wanted paintings that could lead me elsewhere entirely - along with anyone else who wanted to go there.
Very much part of the creation process for me is to visit a place and walk. What occurs when I walk is that I go completely ‘out of time’. I walk through countryside that has not changed much in centuries. I hear birds singing, bunnies bouncing, cows chomping, insects buzzing and know that these sounds were exactly the same 5000 years ago. I often tune in to flashes of history and even emotions – I have no doubt that places retain memories put there by life forms long gone. As I walk - no anchor to the present - I am happy to forget what time period it is, who I am and where I come from. I am happy to just exist and look at the spectacle nature is performing around me. I am a dryad in the woods, and a selkie by the sea, a wise woman, a witch, a fairy, a warrior, an elf. I am anything I care to imagine but cleverly disguised as an overweight middle aged woman so nobody really sees me.
When I come home and I step back onto my timeline, I want to retain some of the magic I experienced by painting an image that tries to capture a little of the essence of it. I am always fascinated to see what appears on a canvas once I start painting as I often have no idea what I have absorbed until the painting starts to emerge. I paint largely from memory with the aid of photos for the wildlife featured in them.
Goal
My ultimate goal is to one day paint something so captivating that I will not be able to look away. Then I want to disappear into it with an inexhaustible supply of cake and an incubus that looks like Jonny Depp never to be seen again...
Feel free to follow my Instagram page:
