about

I currently paint with oil paints, but I am always experimenting. I am interested in the ways that an art practice weaves into a whole life, how it can connect you to yourself, root you in a place, and extend to your community.

Often taking inspiration from being outside, drawing or painting plein air, and coming back to my studio with a heart full of colours and ideas from nearby wild places. I am interested in how, whether my paintings are more representational, or more abstract, they are always an exploration into the place between the physical and my feeling of that thing. A translation of my experience of the world, and an incantation of the invisible things that are felt by my heart more than seen by my eyes, and thus somehow capturing a place, or a moment, in a different way.

I take inspiration from stopping to notice; glimpses of how the glare separates into white beams as you squint towards the sun, or the magic of the light reflecting off of all the green at the river, or the beautiful white glow that comes when you are tired at dusk.

I live with my daughters, in the Saddleworth hills, between Huddersfield and Manchester. I work from my studio in the converted attic of our home, and am often found wandering the nearby moors and valleys. Something about these hills was always calling me to be here.

In using oil paint, a slowness is imposed on the process. There is something about slowing down to this meditative state that lets the work reveal itself. It feels that my job is to almost step out of the way, and let my sense of what is good, what is joyful, guide the painting to paint itself.

I have spent the last twelve years running a best-selling, sustainable greetings card company (click here to see), illustrating a range of original designs on recycled card and selling them around the world. I have worked on many collaborative and community art projects, and I have exhibited my work at various venues around the UK.

I spent ten years singing and playing guitar in my band Hotpants Romance, releasing two albums in the UK and USA, playing gigs in charity shops, schools, and the Sheila's Wheels cadillac, and touring internationally. I have a First Class degree in Interactive Arts from the Manchester School of Art, and I spent three years, co-creating Islington Art Academy, a free, artist-led, art school in Salford.

I am currently working on an Arts Council grant to develop my painting practice. I am painting a series of paintings and finalising a book of poetry for an exhibition at my home. I am also considering setting up a local open-house art trail in my neighbourhood, running occasional group art sessions, tending my allotment, and recording an album of new songs about love and loss and the strangeness of being alive.

Thank you for looking at my website, and please get in touch if you'd like to know more!