Brief Biography and Artistic Journey

I am a UK artist based in East Anglia, predominantly painting with oils on canvas. I began painting seriously in my early twenties. Encouraged by a string of commissions from work colleagues and friends, I started exhibiting in local and national art exhibitions. My artwork caught the eye of a renowned publishing house, launching a successful illustrating career. Over the next twenty years, I produced floral and wildlife watercolours for greeting cards and stationery, working with leading publishers including the Medici Society, UK Greetings, and Woodmansterne Publications.

Currently, I am represented by Green Pebble Cards, who specialize in fine art by UK artists. This partnership allows me the freedom to paint in my preferred style, which has evolved significantly over time. I studied botanical illustration with The Society of Botanical Artists and earned a Diploma with Distinction in 2007.

I have hosted three major solo exhibitions at Norwich Cathedral, The Gallery Wymondham, and The Assembly House Norwich. I have also exhibited in The National Exhibition Wildlife Art in Liverpool, Art in Nature Museum Gloucestershire, Laing, and Patchings. On February 20th, 2020, I was honored to win first prize in Octopus Energy and Artfinder's environmental art competition 'Portraits from the Precipice' for my piece 'The Future's In Our Hands'.

I am a mother to three daughters and have balanced childcare with painting throughout my career. Now that my daughters are adults with their own careers, I have more time and energy to devote to my painting practice and enjoy the freedom to travel and create larger works.

In recent years, I have transitioned from watercolours to oil paints, favoring a more impressionistic style for figurative and landscape works. I relish the application of loose brush strokes, finding that oil paints better suit my expressive style with their rich textures and vibrant colors. Painting is an integral part of my daily routine, serving as my form of therapy and keeping me happy and grounded.

My artistic influences include 19th-century artists like Gustav Klimt, John Waterhouse, Sir John Everett Millais, Claude Monet, Mary Cassatt, and Berthe Morisot. My current work reflects an expressive impressionistic style, capturing the atmosphere and mood of my subjects. I often draw inspiration from remote natural settings, where the sounds and scents are as evocative as the visual experience.

Back in my studio, I work from sketches, color studies, photographs, and even short films to develop my ideas into finished oil paintings. These works vary in shape and size and are often part of an ongoing theme or collection, such as my series inspired by Claude Monet’s garden in Giverny. This garden, created over a century ago as an artist's muse and maintained as Monet envisioned, offers endless inspiration through its seasonal and atmospheric changes.

I employ a warm-colored ground and a wet-on-wet (alla prima) painting technique to capture the soul and immediacy of my subjects. Preferring visible brush strokes over blending, I explore vibrant colors and subtle hues that enhance the dramatic and vibrant nature of my landscapes, often devoid of human elements but filled with native wildlife or domestic animals. My training as a botanical illustrator has deepened my appreciation for the natural beauty of plants and flowers, continually inspiring my work.