My Painting Life
Although I have always drawn, and studied art up to A Level, I did not follow art and design as a career. I was largely dissuaded by my parents and instead studied to become an engineer, to the great disappointment of Enid Hardy, my art teacher at Oxford High School.
My life as an artist has necessarily been crammed into the spaces allowed by a full-time career, although having no children has given me more time to indulge my passion than many women artists.
I continue to attend weekly life drawing classes, relishing the discipline of concentrated observation and practice while exploring different media and methods. I have had wonderful teachers, including many members of the RWS and the NEAC such as Francis and Jason Bowyer, Arthur Neal, Paul Newland, Jane Corsellis, Sarah Spencer, Alex Fowler, Charles Williams and the late much missed Karn Holly.
As well as courses at the Slade Summer School in Drawing and Painting I have taken courses in Design for the Stage, with Motley Theatre Design School and Central St Martins. This subject has always interested me, exploring the relationship between the spoken word and the practicality of physical realisation of theatrical ideas.
Watercolour has always been my medium of preference because it offers such incredible versatility and breadth. I love the sheer range of subtlety and depth which can be achieved and the ability to catch fleeting moments of changing light, particularly when painting ‘en plein air’.
Having lived abroad and travelled fairly widely I am inspired by the differences in light in different regions of the world, from the lilac shadows of the Jordanian desert, the red dirt of central Australia, the blue snow shadows of the Canadian north to the ever glorious light and wide skies of East Anglia.
