ABOUT THE ARTIST. 

As a young girl growing up in Cumbria, I was offered a place at art school on a foundation course. It was, in hindsight, one of those crossroads in life where you can either take the road marked ARTIST or the one marked WHO KNOWS WHAT YOU’LL END UP DOING? Unfortunately, my mother, an attractive but emotionally economical woman, decided that art school was not on the itinerary. So, with my artistic dreams neatly packed away in a box marked perhaps never, I set off in another direction.

A rather boring life followed. I found myself working in fashion as a retailer and model, which sounds far more glamorous than it actually was. There were clothes, of course, and the occasional glamorous moment, but there were also long days, sensible shoes and the undeniable realisation that standing around looking elegant is considerably harder work than it appears.

Eventually, fashion took me to Oxford, where life carried on at a respectable pace until, at the age of 30, I discovered I was pregnant. I wasted absolutely no time in giving up the fashion world. There was suddenly a much more important job on the horizon, involving considerably less eyeliner and considerably more nappies.

And so began the next thirty years.

Children, animals, chaos, mud, hair, food, laundry and the occasional moment when I wondered if anyone in the household actually knew how to put a cup in the dishwasher. It was a busy and wonderfully full life.

Dogs, in particular, became a major part of it. I was the first business in the UK to hold a licence for Home Boarding of Dogs, which meant that my house gradually became less “peaceful family home” and more “five-star canine hotel with questionable room service”. Dogs came, dogs went, and somehow there was always a bowl, a lead or a muddy paw print exactly where it shouldn’t be.

Throughout all of this, I continued to paint. I had always painted, really. It was my quiet escape, my happy place and the thing I kept coming back to, although I never quite believed I was good enough. Perhaps that old parental rejection had lodged itself somewhere deep inside me, whispering, Don’t get too carried away.

Then life changed again.

My mother and father both passed away, and with their deaths came an unexpected sense of freedom. Suddenly, I found myself thinking: Well, what exactly am I waiting for?

So I stopped waiting.

I decided to follow my heart and take painting seriously. Not as something squeezed into the corners of life when everyone else had been fed, walked, watered and generally supervised, but as my full-time passion.

Today, I live on the Black Isle in the Highlands of Scotland, surrounded by the sort of scenery that makes an artist wonder why they ever bothered painting indoors. The light here is extraordinary, constantly changing, sometimes dramatic and occasionally so spectacular that it feels almost rude not to pick up a paintbrush.

I now spend my days creating, experimenting, getting paint in places where paint has no business being, and sharing my love of art with others. My work is sold locally and online, and after a rather long detour involving fashion, children, dogs and several decades of wondering whether I was “really” an artist, I finally am doing exactly what that little girl in Cumbria wanted to do all those years ago.

It only took me a few decades to get there.

Better late than never.

Superscript

Subject Matters!

Acrylics & Watercolour studies 

There is a wide range of styles and subjects to choose from. Sea scapes, fungus, our animal friends. Large and small commissions as well as a collection of cottages and mountain scapes from around the highlands. I love painting abstracts and florals and have a lovely range to choose from.