I began designing greetings cards in 2010, from my studio in Uppermill, Greater Manchester.  With a love of hand-drawn and painted illustration, in a world of ever more computerised images.  My cards have won awards, and sold in big stores like Paperchase and Selfridges, prestigious galleries such as The Whitechapel and The Tate, and a host of beautiful and unique independent gift boutiques. They have been distributed all around the world and have always been printed on recycled card and packaged in biodegradable sleeves.  This year we have begun personally planting a tree for every order placed.

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Painting has always underpinned my art practice, but over the past few years I have found the space in my life to bring my paintings into the centre. In 2022, I was awarded an Arts Council DYCP grant to develop my painting practice and I expanded a body of work that I have begun exhibiting, exploring mark-making with the aim of capturing something of the spirit of these passing moments. 

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Often painting outdoors, I lean into the space between abstract and realist painting, trying to find ways to paint impossible things; moments of life with light falling in incredible ways across ever changing landscapes, like memories and perceptions fading in and out of focus.

 

I love to see how my painting weaves back into my greetings cards, and how my art practice weaves into my life. Alongside my paintings and illustrations I have run community art workshops, spent ten years writing songs and playing guitar with my DIY girl band, helped to create a free art school in Salford, home educated my children, worked on collaborative art projects with poets, performers, musicians, children and ecologists, and always returned to the hills where I live.  There is something about this place that feeds into my heart and my work.

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Recent Exhibitions

2023, Group Exhibition, Cupola Gallery, Sheffield

2023 Featured, Fair Trader, Holmfirth

2023 Between Land and Love, home exhibition, Co-operative Street, Uppermill

 

Education

Islington Mill Art Academy, a peer-led art school in Salford, 2008-2010

Interactive Arts, 1st Class BA(hons), Manchester Metropolitan University, 2002-2005

BTEC National Diploma, Art Foundation Course, Leeds College of Art, 2001-2002

 

 

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