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| Biography |
My
Mother was an artist and took a dim view of art colleges and pushed
me into doing science, even though I had shown some artistic talent
at an early age. I ended up at Sussex University studying Biology.
I met my husband there, who was a brainy mathematician and therefore
could get a “proper job”. But you can’t keep a
good artist down so after getting a Bsc in Biology I went to art
college and ended up studying for a BA in Illustration. I had to
pay my own fees so when an opportunity came up to be the illustrator
for the software games company, Salamander Software I took it and
learnt on the job as it were. As it was based in my dining room I
also helped run the company. I did the art direction and print buying
as well as the fantastic covers.
At Art college I developed my passion for life drawing. I think of
it as my artistic aerobics and have always done it on a regular basis.
After a short break to have children I began to paint for myself and
started to exhibit my work. I began to teach painting and drawing as
well at this time and still do.
I discovered handmade Khadi watercolour paper and a new way of using
watercolour at a workshop with the painter Graham Dean (who funnily
enough bought my old house a few years before.) This changed my life.
It seemed natural to use my life drawings in my work once I moved away
from my tight illustrative style. I use a very limited palette of colours,
which seem sympathetic to the human form.
Portraits, landscapes and architecture are also inspiring to me and
my paintings tend to reflect where I have been recently. Obviously,
I have done Brighton a lot. But I am very lucky to go to Cape Cod ever
year to stay with the in-laws. The cape is more or less a source of
constant inspiration to me. We live in a shed in the woods by the sea
and the quality of light there is fantastic, and I try to capture it
in my paintings. Some of my paintings reflect Edward Hooper and it
is not because I am trying to do that, it is because it really does
look like that.
Venice is also a recurring theme. It is hard for an artist to visit
Venice and not want to paint it. The light, the colours, the architecture
and the atmosphere are hard to resist. As every artist and their dog
paints Venice, I am trying the sense of atmosphere and history in my
new paintings.
I recently had brief visits to Barcelona and Seville. I was blown away
by the Gaudi architecture and want to go back and do more sketching.
Seville was inspiring too and I adored the Alcazar and would happily
spend a week just in the garden there just drawing and painting.
I am a member of the Fiveways Artists Group in Brighton who open there
houses during the Brighton Festival in May every year for art exhibitions.
It was the Fiveways group that started the open house phenomenon, which
has now spread throughout the town and country. We have a couple of
thousand visitors every year. It is a great way to exhibit as you are
in sole charge of your exhibition and you get to talk to the visitors
directly and get their reactions to your work. This is my main exhibition
every year I did have an exhibition in 2002 at the Hawth theatre in
Crawley where my nudes caused a sensation, so much so some were taken
down as they
were deemed to cause offence. I was rather taken a back by this as
no one had batted an eyelid in Brighton. However this was a great excuse
for some free publicity.
I am currently working on a series of nudes incorporating natural forms.
A series of interiors. And now we have a dog which involves long walks
across the Downs, I shall be doing views of Sussex.
I have also taken up oil painting again and love it. I am doing portraits
and long life studies. I have discovered that if you paint from life
long enough using flake white oil paint, you too can paint like Lucien
Freud.
I am teaching life drawing and painting at the Connaught Centre in
Hove and I also tutor the Dupont Group regularly. I am still very involved
with the Sussex County Arts Club which does drop in life drawing, where
I go for my Artistic Aerobics.
I regularly undertake commissions. I used to get a lot to do peoples
houses and pets, now it seems to be nude portraits. |
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