I was born and brought up on a farm in West Berkshire and this has given me a love of nature and the English landscape which I hope I convey in my stylised, whimsical paintings.

 

I have always been creative and it was inevitable that I would choose a career based around art so I trained as a graphic designer which was an easier option to earn a living from, at that time, than a fine artist. I worked in Graphics for around 14 years and this has definitely influenced my use of colour and composition.

 

After taking time out to have my two children, I initially created homemade greetings cards but as this brought in only a small income, I started to work on developing my painting style. To begin with, all my paintings were in mixed media and I used everything from paint and paper to stitching and beads to create highly textured and ornate pieces. I have now worked as a full-time artist for around 10 years and have been exploring my style with mainly acrylics although more recently I have gone back to my mixed media roots. I use a specific brand of paint called Jo Sonja by Chroma which is a decorative paint system designed for use on a variety of surfaces including wood and glass but also works extremely well on paper and canvas. It comes in a beautiful range of colours and helps to give my work its distinctive colour palette. I love to work from my imagination and like to let my paintings evolve. I use a variety of mark-making equipment to add form and texture to my landscapes.

 

My main inspiration comes from the ever-changing seasons of the English landscape with my favourite season being winter as I love to see the structure and detail of trees and hedgerows. My winter scenes are very popular with many selling before they are even finished.

 

I have been selling my work, mainly online for over 10 years, and have many of my images licensed for greeting cards, prints, calendars, and cross-stitch kits. I never initially thought about licensing but it is a direction that found me and it's lovely to see my work as cards and other products and who knows where it will lead!