About me

    I live in, what I think  is a beautiful part of the United Kingdom, the Derbyshire Dales.

I recently opted to take voluntary redundancy, in May 2011,  from a job that made me incredibly happy a lot of the time: like most jobs it had its moments… but due to the impending cuts my current job at that time became obsolete.
So with much fear & excitement I have leased a studio in the village where I live & as of the 31st May 2011 I will be a full time painter: for a year at least.

I have other ideas up my sleeve, but my main aim is to develop my skills as a painter and enjoy the year that I have been given to do this: an opportunity that I can’t miss.
I’m blogging as a way of keeping my own record of my year painting, a way of keeping my friends, family and others updated of my progress and to share my trials & tribulations with others who are either facing redundancy, having a bash at their dream and/or also other like-minded painters/creative people.

I’ve always enjoyed being creative and the one subject, whilst I was at school, I looked forward to was Art.

I graduated in 2oo1 from University; I studied Art Therapies - Derby University. Since then I have painted and often hoped that I would be able to concentrate on it full-time/have a studio space to paint.

Prior to May 2011 I worked for a large charity based in the United Kingdom and was employed as a Registered Manager of a residential home for adults with learning disabilities, I spent 10 years working for the organisation. Then came my chance to give painting a go! My studio is based in a small Derbyshire Village within the Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site.

My Work:

I am an abstract painter. My Work has its own pictorial language which has evolved over a number of years since graduating from Derby University.

I paint about everyday life, people, places and landscapes (both real and imagined), which are influenced by the emotions of that time and place.

I concentrate on the aesthetic value of my work and the painting process itself involves working intuitively. I manipulate and explore materials and I am interested in, and enjoy, the processes that are involved and the physicality of the materials, I enjoy the practicality of painting itself.

My work usually involves the process of building up layers of paint, paper and other materials. These are then rubbed, scraped and scored so as to reveal previous layers; this is either left revealed or covered with yet more layers of paint. And so the process continues until I have achieved a desired effect. I enjoy working with colour and this is evident within my work.

I prefer the viewer to interpret my paintings and decide what they mean to them, rather than explaining the literal meanings behind my work.