If you have already been to see my work, you’ll know the sort of things I like to
paint - a mixture of still lives, interiors and landscapes, generally in oil but
sometimes in chalk pastel.
Places I know and things I value - familiar subjects in the main, but endlessly
interesting because they look and feel different in different light and at different
times of day. I like the combination of drama and mundanity in everyday things.
The battle continues to be truthful in paint and pastel and to cut out the
unnecessary - to be more spare, more considered. I’m a fast, possibly hasty,
painter and my daughter tells me to think before I start - think and look and then
think some more! You will have to judge whether I’m succeeding.
I would like to find a way of using my painting to speak about some of the issues
which matter to me
- migration and the desperate plight of people forced to flee their homeland
- The gross inequalities between the haves and have-nots
- The state of our planet as the climate changes and we fail to act
but I haven’t yet found a way of painting about any of these things which isn’t
preachy or hackneyed.
I'm exhibiting in my studio at the end of the garden which is accessed along the
side of the house from Plantation Road. Jericho and Walton Manor have plenty of
artists all within easy walking distance, so you can plan a route to take in a variety
of different venues.
I'm open every day from the 20th to the 29th May, from 11 to 6.
One of the things I like best about Artweeks is the chance to meet visitors and the
interesting conversations that ensue, so come and see the paintings and maybe
have a chat.
I started painting seriously around 15 years ago and have exhibited in Oxfordshire Artweeks almost every year since then. I also exhibit regularly with Oxford Art Society where I am a member and very recently showed work at the Ronapainting Gallery and The Jam Factory.
My background is in social anthropology, teaching and therapy and my artistic education has come from a variety of evening classes, workshops and weekend summer schools. I've benefited substantially from the advice, encouragement and good example of more established artists around me and I've just painted........learned from my own, frequent mistakes and kept on painting!