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Born in Leigh-on-Sea in Essex, I have always been influenced by the joye de vivre, vivacity and laughter that surrounded me when I lived in that ‘famous little Home County’. I settled in Cambridge in 1994 where I live with my husband; a singer in a band and university lecturer.
I’ve been extraordinarily lucky in meeting and working with many gifted and talented painters and printmakers and I owe a great personal debt to their support and encouragement throughout my career.
I was extremely fortunate to participate in the BBC’s Rolf on Art programme
programme, and painted / collaged one of the
canvas ma depiction of Henry VIII. This was a brilliant and memorable day - working alongside such characters as Bill Oddie and chatting with Rolf at lunchtime - which ended by being interviewed on live TV.
My best ideas often spring to mind when I’m doing something other than working in my studio, for example walking the dog, driving along listening to the radio or relaxing with my husband. It’s important for me to capture these first seeds of an idea in my notebooks. After a while I see which ideas tend to ‘stick’ in my mind and these go on to be developed into paintings or prints.
In November 2007 I moved into a new, light and airy studio in Cambridge Artworks and this move is having a liberating and powerful impact on the way I work. When I’m not working in my studio I work part-time at the Royal Academy of Arts.
I’m an enthusiastic and committed artist and have to paint not only because it gives me pleasure, but because it gives meaning to my life. |
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Most of my prints
are etchings and drypoints with the necessary graphic qualities demanding
a fairly direct and immediate treatment of an idea. I find that oil
paintings usually take me a
lot longer. Occasionally idea and image are totally
harmonious and the painting flows, other times I find myself
painting-out and repainting as I change my mind about what I’m trying to
say, until I eventually
capture the image that best communicates the idea in my mind. Yet there
are times
when
images just seem to arrive on my canvas as if they have a will of their
own.