MY STORY
Looking back, I always loved drawing and generally doing anything creative. I spent much of my childhood years sketching, colouring and painting. Mostly, I painted horses and if I wasn't painting them I was setting up jumps in the garden to take our ever patient family dog Polly, my hobby horse or my imaginary pony around a showjumping course over and over again! As well as spending a lot of time outdoors, cycling, sailing and horse riding. I absolutely loved Art at school, choosing to take this subject in both my GCSEs and as an 'A' level. I went on to take my Foundation year in Art and Design with the intention of studying this at degree level. As much as I had a desire to create, I was also drawn to the care sector, torn between a vocation in nursing or my then desire to be a Graphic designer. I often joked that when I grew up, I would know! Over the following years, I married and worked in the health care sector and due to the busyness of life I gradually stopped painting. Following the birth of my third child and working in a hospice, I started to paint again for relaxation.
At this time Dorothy House Hospice opened up an Outreach Centre and I was given the opportunity to sell my artwork on their walls. Little did I know that this would be the start of my career as an artist!
In 2019 I left the hospice and was able to start working on my artwork full time.
In 2022 as the world was recovering from Covid and my art paraphernalia had taken over the house, I started to look for a studio and that is where I find myself now. In a beautiful, rural retreat that I now have the pleasure of calling my studio. A dream space and location which is rapidly filling up with all the the paints, paintbrushes, canvases, frames and easels that are all a part of this kind of work. I love having visitors to the studio and have a comfortable, welcoming area to relax and enjoy refreshments, the view and of course, the artwork!
I live in Chippenham, Wiltshire a short distance from my studio in Long Dean, near Castle Combe with my 'children' Sophie, Luke and Isaac. We now have three pets. Nala, a half bengal cat with beautiful markings and a mischievous character (also a model for several of my paintings!) Then there is Molly and Leo, two gorgeous miniature dachshunds who I can honestly say have literally turned our lives upside down!