Creativity has been a central and essential part of my life. Although an only child, I had the great joy of being surrounded by great-grandparents, grandparents and aunts and uncles making things! After some investigation into my ancestors this seems to be a common thread. Whether it be ‘crafts’, painting, photography, garden design, interior design - how things look and how they are made is so important to me.
After school I should have taken up a place to study 3D Design/Silversmithing at university but life took me in a different direction. Twelve years later when both sons were at school I started a City & Guilds Course in Creative Embroidery. Four intense and fabulous years later, on ‘graduation’, I joined the Cheshire Textile Group (now disbanded) and exhibited nationally and internationally both with the Group and in solo or smaller group shows. After leaving the Group in 2002 I exhibited nationwide with two fellow artists until 2006.
The devastation of the unexpected and very sudden death of my husband in late 2006 left me with a total creative block. Even the great happiness of remarrying didn’t help. A house move in 2014 provided me with a studio and a determination to overcome the block.
Painting is now my main focus rather than textiles. I have been working with acrylic paint, predominantly on birch panel, but I am slowly investigating oils and cold wax as an alternative, more environmentally-friendly, medium.
The starting point for my artwork is either feelings/emotions or visual stimuli from which I abstract the elements that provoke interest but then move on intuitively responding to the previous marks and layers. Photography and sketchbook work can be the starting process but it can also be through direct play, exploration and experimentation. It’s all about expressing the magic!
selected exhibitions
2023 Spring Exhibition, Blue & Berry Art Gallery, Chelford, Cheshire
2022 ‘Art In The Barn’, Bidlea Dairy, Holmes Chapel. Group exhibition as part of Goosfest
2022 ‘WOW’, Technically Brilliant, Warrington
2022 Blue and Berry Art Gallery, Chelford, Cheshire
2022 Tarpey Gallery, Castle Donington
2022 Art Fair Cheshire, Macclesfield
2020 Technically Brilliant, Warrington
2019 Technically Brilliant, Warrington
2009 Teneight Studios, Macclesfield
2006 The Guy Chester Centre, London
2002/2003 Buxton Museum & Art Gallery. CTG
2002 Cliffe Castle Museum & Art Gallery, Keighley, Macclesfield Silk Museum and Blackburn Museum & Art Gallery. CTG
2000 Dukes Oak Gallery, Cheshire. Open Art
2000 Rozelle House Gallery, Ayr and Cajobah Gallery, Birkenhead. CTG
1999 Shire Hall Art Gallery, Stafford and Pendle Heritage Centre, Lancashire. CTG
1998 Quarry Bank Mill, Styal, Cheshire, Bury Art Gallery and Museum, Patchings Farm Art Centre, Nottingham and Keele University Art Gallery, Staffordshire. CTG Tenth anniversary touring exhibition
1997 Garry Olson Gallery, Wilmslow, Cheshire. CTG
1997 Artfibers Gallery, San Francisco, California, USA. 'Earth Threads' selected exhibition
1997 Dukes Oak Gallery, Cheshire. Fibre Art Open
1996 Salford Museum and Art Gallery and The Maltings Gallery, Farnham, Surrey. CTG
1995 The Arc, Chester. CTG