About me

Admittedly this photograph is an old one but it says a lot about me and the foundation of what makes me tick. These days I am not sailing and if I go to the islands it’s by ferry and car but I still love to explore even if it’s in a car. I have a wealth of materials in the way of memories, sketchbooks, and photographs from all my adventures in days gone by which gives me lots of material to work with for many many years to come and I’m constantly coming across textures in the garden that inspire me.

A child of the 60’s and 70’s surrounded by textiles, because my mother made everything and surrounded herself with the most amazing vibrant colours. She gave me lots of offcuts to make things out of whilst she created a colourful home for us. I must have driven her crazy as I used to happily cut little people out of old wallpaper offcuts and cover them in funky 60’s colours. She didn’t complain, not really, and she included me in every artistic endeavour. She was my inspiration. During my youth I used to pass a museum on the way home from school, which I would constantly go in and visit. I just loved to look at all the new finds. At the time the town we lived in was digging up a lot of archaeology and I was so inspired by old coins, textiles and domestic artefacts.

My career has been very varied. I worked with companies in London designing window displays and later went freelance. I was so interested in history, especially social history. I researched and had 2 books published. I collected old picture postcards and attended lots of postcard shows. I went to colleges both in England and Scotland ( where my family lived ) and studied drawing, painting, ceramics, illustration and printmaking. Around 30 years ago I started to exhibit with galleries around the uk. I started working with art in healthcare in various settings and latterly taught textiles in community education with our local college.

In recent years I have had some health problems and spent a fair amount of time in hospital. I am left with ongoing health issues so I started to explore working with textiles more rather than struggling with big canvasses and for the past few years I have been exploring this medium more and more. Working in textiles is flexible and I find it so relaxing. It gives me the perfect combination of colour, texture and history when using vintage finds, all the things I love and if I’m not up to a trip to my studio I can snuggle up in a corner at home surrounded by threads and now drive my husband crazy with all the bits of tiny fabrics attaching themselves to household things ! If my mother is looking down from above right now she would find this very funny.

Working in textiles is also a way for me to help nature as nearly everything I use is old and I recycle 90% into my work including vintage threads. I also work with wool and natural materials as much as possible. So everything I have loved during my life thus far is coming together in this new body of work. I love history and the designs in the landscape left by the ancestors, I love collecting curiosities, I love nature and I love to recycle. This is the perfect medium for me !

I decided that this was a good time to get a brand new website built that will allow me to sell my textile work directly to anyone who loves textiles.

I continue to sell my paintings directly with Galleries and they occasionally like to exhibit my larger textiles too. The links to these galleries and shops are on this website.

I also have a very active Instagram account, this is where I post about new work both painting and textile and any exhibitions I am taking part in. My Facebook pages are not updated as often but I hope to improve on that. The links to my social media are at the bottom of my website page.