A little bit about me

This is my studio in my garden, it really is my happy place.  It has moved to a new house with me and changed as my work has developed.  My sewing machine has come indoors, and with the help of my husband, I have installed a painting wall, so that I can hang work, paint standing up and just have more space to move!

So how did this all begin…. After completing a Textile Design Degree at University, I became a teacher of Design and Technology in a secondary school, specialising in Textiles.  Encouraging students to be creative and see the potential of ideas made me realise I wanted that for myself again.  I started a City and Guilds course in the evening in Stitched Textiles.  I specialised in Knit at Uni, and hated the embroidery section of the course, how times change! I loved getting my creative juices going again, experimenting with materials, and developing designs.  When the course finished, I wanted to keep going and the garden shed was transformed (with paint and a worktop), into a creative space.  I had my first child by this time so a little space to call my own in an evening was great.  I eventually joined a local exhibiting group, Nolitex, which gave me the freedom and space to develop my ideas and go bigger in scale.  At this time, I was doing a lot of free-machine embroidery, applique and printing.  I had left my teaching job to be a full time mum to my two boys, as they got older my art practice developed, that first shed had been left behind and I moved to the dining table, a space in the utility and eventually to the summerhouse in the garden I have now.

I had started to sell my work, making commissions, and going to craft fairs, when I found out I had breast cancer.  I stopped making anything for a while and when the creative urge started to come back, I wanted to do something different; looser, much freer and just for me.  I started working in oil sticks and created big colourful landscapes.  Listening to the Art Juice podcast, encouraged, and inspired me, leading me to Nicholas Wilton’s Creative Visionary Program.  Deciding to do it was a big moment, I thought maybe I should paint more and take it in a year’s time, or maybe it was exactly what I needed.   I really explored paint, colour and value and totally loved it.  Desire, to do more and be more, came creeping back and has eventually led me here.