Born and bred in Morecambe, Lancashire, I have been living in Oxfordshire for almost 30 years.

I am completely self taught and didn’t start this amazing journey until mid-2018 following the death of my father. I was inspired by a cala lily on a condolence card I had received, it was a bit of a ‘on a scrap of paper sketch’ and to this day I still can’t believe how it turned out. Sadly I cannot display this piece because of copywrite – but it was the catalyst for what you see now.

I have never seen myself as arty, although I had a very talented Aunt who used to paint with gouache producing very detailed drawings which I always admired. I think this is probably why I took up this medium rather than any other, the ability to achieve such fine detail.

Due to work/life demands my art went on hold until 2020 when I was furloughed. Inspired by artists such as Bonny Snowdon and the late Sarah Le Vallois, I invested in a few coloured pencils and gave it a go. Up until recently a lot of my work has been pet portraits, I do enjoy these. The challenge of trying to capture the essence of someone’s pet, in most cases purely from a photograph.

As I’ve got braver I’ve drawn some independent pieces. I draw on impulse, if something catches my imagination I’m hooked. Each piece is a journey of learning. As you will see from my work I enjoy nature, animals and the outdoors.

Bizarrely I can be impatient by nature, wanting to finish whatever I’m doing promptly. With this medium, I can’t. It’s not something you can rush and so I like to call this my ‘yoga with pencils’. It makes me slow down, it channels my mind and I find stress just goes away.

This will be my first public exhibition and I am very excited to exhibit my work. I will have new pieces to show at Venue 327 which can be found on Sheep Street, Bicester. You can see more of my work via the links below for Facebook and Instagram.

Thank you for taking the time to read my profile