Artist's Gallery

I am a mainly self-taught artist based in North Tawton in West Devon. I have always loved painting and have attended art classes most of my adult live. 

My story is a familiar one in that during lockdown, I was furloughed for several months, and I turned to painting as a way of coping with the circumstances, as I find when you paint you completely lose yourself in what you are doing and can completely forget everything that's going on around you.

I painted a lot, shared it with friends and family on social media and they encouraged me to take the next step and start putting my art out there. I started by having some of my paintings on display in the window of a local gallery (which was closed due to Covid restrictions). To my delight the window display got a fantastic reaction and people started contacting me wanting to buy.

Since then, I have sold at various art shows and exhibitions and from having stalls at local markets and fairs. In 2021 I had a wonderful holiday at a rural retreat in Andalucía and on my return did a painting of the amazing view from our terrace. I was delighted when they contacted me asking for prints and cards of my painting and am very proud to have my work on their wall in Spain for all their guests to enjoy. My work is also on display in my local cafe and on the walls on some local holiday accommodation. I also take part in Devon Open Studios.

I love to create colourful, textured landscapes and abstracts.  My main inspirations are the moors or our beautiful coastline as these are my two favourite places to go walking. I work in either acrylics or oils on either canvas or wooden cradles. Most of my work isn't of anywhere specific and comes from my imagination, but I hope to create a sense of place. When people ask whereabouts on Dartmoor somewhere is, I always reply "it can be wherever you want it to be!"

I also enjoy experimenting with cyanotype printing. After coating paper in light sensitive chemicals, I use natural objects like ferns, flowers or feathers which have been found in my garden, or maybe seaweed collected from a beach, and then use the sun to capture the image. The process is very experimental and you never quite know what results you are going to get!

As well as original artwork, I offer mounted prints, blank greeting cards and pendant necklaces which house a small section of a print of my artworks or are actual mini cyanotypes.

When I am not painting, I like to go out walking with my husband Mark and black lab, Murphy. We love to go onto Dartmoor where I take photos and get inspiration for my paintings.