My Profile

I have been creative for as long as I can remember, enjoying arts and crafts as a child and then picking up art classes in my 30’s to rediscover my creativity as an adult. Having not had formal art training until this point, I thoroughly enjoyed a wide range of experiences under the expert tuition of an amazing artist (Jessica Mallorie), learning to draw properly, understanding some of the technical aspects of painting, and freeing myself up to create the kind of work I am inspired by. Jessica also introduced me to oil paints, and I have rarely painted with anything else since!

I find oils extremely satisfying to work with, the creamy texture and fluidity of them as well as the beautiful colours, the blending and mixing in situ on surface, and the ability to layer a painting to achieve depth. I use these properties to create abstract and semi-abstract paintings inspired by the natural world; sky, sea, mountains, valleys, plants, flowers, and the elements. I like to travel and ‘absorb’ a place, it’s colours and landscape details, and then paint a series of work on my return, with only the briefest reference to the numerous photographs I have taken!

My work is usually bold and vibrant, and I like creating medium and large scale pieces, as I find this gives me the freedom to be expressive, instinctive and experimental in my approach without being confined to the tight boundaries of a small canvas. I have an intuitive, instinctive and experimental approach to mark making and use palette knives and other tools (not all designed for painters!), which for me, further enable abstraction and ‘looseness’.

I have exhibited at several local events over the past years, including Art in the Park (Leamington Spa), Warwickshire Open Studios’ Summer Art Weeks Event, and Kenilworth Arts Festival, and I work from a studio in my cottage garden. I have delivered a handful of commissioned pieces, alongside sales of other originals and framed prints.