Welcome to my website!

It all started with me finding my mother’s watercolour things - paints of every hue, a small but perfect set of brushes, odds and ends of blank paper and a mountain of sketches, all left behind thirty years ago after her early death. When I could ignore no longer her overflowing boxes of art equipment underneath the piano, I booked myself onto several courses run by Vikki Jones in Pickering, an inspiring and accomplished artist who guided me to finding my own style.

I settled happily with my mother’s watercolours at first, and then ventured into other mediums, exploring different styles, textures and techniques before realising that the really, really important thing is to enjoy what I’m doing. I don’t focus on making my work look like anyone else’s, or following any rules, or even completing a painting. I just choose colours that inspire me, and I base my paintings loosely on something I have seen or experienced personally.

I live in Cumbria, where we have more than enough hills, lakes, seascapes, villages, plants and animals to last a lifetime. I find, however, that my impressionistic/abstract style sometimes takes me in surprising directions, where the balance of colours and objects becomes more important than painting a recognisable landscape. Hence, I am usually unable to say, ‘This is a painting of Ullswater on a sunny July day.’ If you were to ask me, I would be more likely to respond, ‘This is a painting which I love, which was first formed in my mind when I was walking along a viaduct near my home, but then I wanted to allow phthalo blue to dominate because it is such an amazing colour, and then I needed to omit some mountains which seemed to clutter the horizon and add some trees to knit the foreground to the hills.’