My creative process all starts with drawing, colour and creative freedom, developing paintings and ceramics through play and experimentation. I have a passion for landscape drawing and painting which have more recently found their way on to my thrown earthenware and porcelain ceramic forms. This body of work is being further developed with support from the Arts Council through a ‘Developing Your Creative Practice’ grant 2023/24.
I believe that a painting, print, ceramic or photograph can only really work if the initial drawing or idea has a strong composition form. I have spent many years walking, drawing, searching for compositions on the marshes, footpaths and in the lanes around the Waveney Valley. There are echoes of the past everywhere in the landscape, holloways, paths that have been created by people or subtle tracks made by hares finding the quickest route through a hedge or across a field. The impact of human activity can be heavy handed like the route of an old train line across a marsh or subtle, like the replanting of field hedgerows with Blackthorn, Hawthorn, Sloe, Spindleberry.
My love of colour is evident in all my artworks, it’s always a joy to discover a vibrant Spindleberry with it’s bright orange berry encased in a bright pink pod. There really are the most intense flashes of colour out in what at first glance looks like a green/brown marshland. From the Campion along the side of the road in the spring, Dogwood sprouting in the hedgerows, bright red Holly berries to the intense blueish purple of ripe Sloes, the heavy red/brown of the soil and the bright skies reflected in puddles in the lanes.
I have exhibited across the UK and have work in permanent private and public collections. I studied at Falmouth Art College between 1994-97, Curwen Study Print Centre, Essex University and Central St Martins. I am constantly learning from other artists and makers about new techniques and approaches to keep my practice current and moving forward.
