I am a painter. I walk at all times of the year and sometimes it is the way a building sits in its surroundings – sometimes just wildlife, which catches the eye. If the images remain insistent, they become points of departure for paintings.
Painting in oils is a slow process, allowing time to think and reconsider – layering colour and texture with brushes and knives, scraping back, simplifying forms and colours, adding more until the work seems finished. I love the whole process.
The paintings on display were made recently and are from a series in which birds of the hills and coast figure prominently.
I studied at Liverpool College of Art and subsequently qualified as a teacher. I also have a degree in Philosophy and History of Art from the Open University, awarded after a long period of slow study, while I raised three children in South Cumbria.
Between 1987 and 1995 I worked as a librarian and researcher for the Nature Conservancy Council, now Natural England, in Cumbria and in Peterborough. I learned a lot about species and habitats – and new ways of looking at landscape.
In 1995 I became a full time artist. I have a small studio and gallery, concentrating on painting, initiating and taking part in a range of exhibitions. I have taken part in Dumfries & Galloway’s Studio Trail ‘Spring Fling’ for the past 10 years and I have been an Axis artist since 2006. My paintings, textiles and mixed media have been shown in galleries in England, Ireland and Scotland and I have work in private collections in UK, Europe and USA.
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