All About Me

I was one of those toddlers who never slept and one of my earliest memories is getting up at 5am to start drawing… 

My mum is a keen artist and I'd copy her, and copy pictures from my dad's bird books. At school I had a really kind teacher who encouraged my love of art and even bought me my first set of watercolours. I was using the original paint box until very recently, when it gave up its 40 year battle with rust.

I left Teesside to study graphic design and illustration at Leeds Metropolitan University, then dabbled with animation and spent time as a graphic designer for corporate television in Glasgow and Gateshead. But I really hated sitting in a windowless room trying to work a very expensive computer. So I trained and worked as a primary teacher in Blyth until taking time out to look after my young family. I didn’t pick up a paintbrush for many years.

One day I agreed to take in an art project in my local first school. I enjoyed it but had to stop myself snatching the paintbrushes off the children and doing it myself! So I took up drawing again and haven't looked back. Now I work full time as an artist, and moved in to my own studio at Gallery 45 in September 2018.

You can find my work in a small selection of galleries and craft shops throughout Newcastle and Northumberland. These include the Alnwick Garden, For the Love of the North (Spanish City) and the Morpeth Chantry. Also Seahouses and Lindisfarne National Trust shops and Howick Hall Gardens.

Commissions include the Alnwick Castle and Gardens visitor maps and the large watercolour map which forms the centrepiece of the Howick Hall Gardens visitor centre.

I’m a massive nature-lover and my favourite place to be is the northwest coast of Scotland, staring into a rock pool in a pair of wellies. If I could do this with a glass of red wine in my hand that would be perfect.