About
The past - biography
I was born and raised in Glasgow, Scotland, although my pre-school years were spent in Canada.
Having earned a degree in interior architecture from Glasgow’s College of Building & Printing, I then emigrated to South Africa, where I worked with top interior design firms and latterly set up my own practice. Working with interiors principally in the hospitality and domestic fields kept my love of beauty and art alive and meant I was travelling all over the country.
After retiring and becoming disillusioned by the politics in South Africa I decided to fulfil a lifelong dream to travel.
This brought me to the USA where a need to paint again was fulfilled with a course in New Mexico, USA at Black Range School of Art, resulting in an exhibition.
But a hunger to slow down, to re-connect with nature, with myself, is what brought me back.
Back to the land of my birth, to Scotland, where I now create abstract mixed media paintings.
The present - about
Influenced by the varied landscapes that have touched my soul, I have refined my art to a balance of simplified strokes and media, allowing it to flow and interpret the surrounding nature thus creating my own artistic vocabulary.
The Ardnamurchan peninsula has worked it’s magic on me and I feel immensely privileged to call this wild, remote place in the north west Highlands home.
This land – the light, the air, the very spirit of the place itself – has seeped into my very being.
It informs every mark and brushstroke that make up my paintings.
As I walk this land, camera and sketch book in hand there is no end to the inspiration of the rugged beauty surrounding me, my spirit soars.
I am renewed.
Painting is a solitary pursuit and it is during these times that I lose myself and allow the paintings to create themselves, whether exposed to the elements or back in the studio.
My sketches and photos are reminders only and never slavishly copied.
I am at peace with the work and trust the process.