where it all began...

Skint hardworking parents living in a mining village, in need of cheap ways to occupy their two daughters = lots of long walks in the woods and a fair bit of driving round the Peak District ooing and aahhing at the dramatic landscape. This was mixed in with major thrift, which makes you realise you can make all kinds of things if you can't afford to buy them. Finished with a heavy sprinkling of childhood illness time with nothing to do but draw, and here I am.

I am jaw droppingly inspired by the natural environment, curious about how things leave an impression on us and passionate about drawing and using materials and media in innovative ways (see the my Statement for the ‘art speak’ version of that). I consider myself really privileged to be able to do this for a living but there were over 20 years of diversions and obstacles along the way…  

A love of drawing and craft may have filled my childhood but “you can’t do that for as a proper job”, or can you?. A startling spark of aspiration struck at the age of 13 thanks to a school trip to the then Trent Polytechnic, where I found out that a degree wasn’t necessarily a sequinned Motown singer (who knew?!). However, back at school my art teacher spent his days sitting in his storeroom smoking, and the tech’ drawing teacher believed that the only females allowed in his classroom were the ones on the Pirelli calendar hanging on the wall. So that was that, and like many women my age, I was sent to typing classes. Here I must apologize to my poor teacher for the resulting rebellion!

I have done 17 different jobs but all I’ve ever wanted to be was an artist. However, I firmly believe that everything we do along the way in life is useful if we hold it up to the light.

In 2003 I left my job and enrolled in a Foundation Course in Art and Design at Lincoln, from there I progressed to their BA in Fine Art.

I've since had the joy and reward of combining my years in education management with art, and applying that mix to youth arts work and arts development in ‘hard to reach’ communities and schools (funded mainly by Arts Council England). But it is now time to get properly stuck in to developing my own practice...

I am a looker and a shower (no, I said show-er). I have done my job well if I distill the sensation that I feel when I’m experiencing the natural world into finely tuned marks that invoke similar sensations in you.

I hope you enjoy seeing what I see, and maybe even feeling what I feel…