Following a Foundation course in Torquay, I attended painting classes with Jean Alice Coombe at Foxhole, Dartington for many years. My paintings and collages cover a variety of subjects in oils, acrylic and mixed media; often sourced from landscapes; both local and abroad, still life and the figure.
I was also a regular member of the Dartington Printmakers Workshop, using linocut, collograph and monoprinting techniques for several years.
I am excited by colour and am greatly influenced by colourist artists of the past, including Matisse, the German Expressionists of the early Twentieth Century, particularly Kirchner, and the figurative work produced by the American Bay Area artists of the 1950s and 60s.
Many of my collages have been of townscapes and rural landscapes on a large scale, natural objects, animals and the human figure. Using layers of torn, semi - translucent handmade papers and found objects, I build up images of texture and form, often incorporating wry humour. In more recent years I have incorporated paint into these mixed media pictures.
I have run collage workshops in schools in the South West in recent years, as a ‘Visiting Artist’, both through Devon Artists In Schools Initiative (DAISI) and independently. Specialising in 2 to 3 day workshops creating hand- made and found object collages with groups of children; these projects covered a range of subjects, from 'Rapping' to 'Africa', still- life work and city/ townscapes of their home environment.
For years I also ran a weekly collage workshop at my studio in South Devon, and also 'one off' collage workshop days during the year.
In March 1997 I appeared on “Collectors Lot”, filmed by 2/4 Productions for Channel 4 Television, which followed the creation of a fish collage over 3 days.
In July 2005, together with two partners, I created the very successful gallery ‘artworks’ in the village of South Brent in Devon, with the aim of promoting high quality local artists and craftpersons’ work, and in which my own work is shown. The ethos of the gallery is to provide a selling space for local artists and to bring high quality art to the heart of a local rural community.
In 2009 I left ‘artworks’ to manage our family business, sadly not connected to art, but happily I still find time to run collage workshops from home.
My most recent project has been to write and illustrate a childrens’ book with twenty mixed media collage illustrations and a story. This was originally written for my two grandchildren, but I really enjoyed the experience and excitement of having a project to get my teeth into, and plan and hope to make more in the future.