I live in a small village in rural Lincolnshire with my husband Stuart, 6 miles north west of the cathedral city of Lincoln. We have a nature reserve, studio and gallery which we open to visitors for most of the year. I have always been attracted to the natural, less cultivated aspects of the landscape and an interest in nature grew from spending many hours as a child in the fields and woods around my home in the school holidays. I was often alone but never lonely as I explored the countryside. It was an adventure then and still is today as I experience the same delight of discovering something that captures my imagination and gives me an idea for a painting.

My academic studies and working career followed a varied path but it was this love of the wild aspects of nature which led me to become a painter. I am always inspired by dramatic skies and landscapes but just as easily by the texture and patterns I see in a pile of logs in the woods or rocks and stones near a river. My starting point can be sunlight through trees, or on a building, a reflection in water, sunset colours or just what I sense as the spirit of the place. I look for the unusual rather than the picturesque as I am not aiming to make a factual record of what I see... instead I try to capture something of the excitement I feel when I discover fleeting moments in an ever-changing landscape. I like to create an impression of what attracted me rather than a photographic image.

I have fun with my art and enjoy manipulating the paint using a palette knife, large brushes, or my hands to get texture on the canvas or board. I find oils and acrylics suit my style which tends to be less representational these days. I may use an abstract rather than representational form allowing colour, tone and shapes to evoke rhythm and mood and my own personality.

Painting Plein Air is wonderful for when I want to feel the countryside around me and nothing can compare with the challenge of trying to capture something of that first impression. I also carry a digital camera and notebook for recording what I see at the time as some of my work is done in the studio, away from the subject. Sketches, notes and photographs are used for reference but the picture usually evolves through my feelings about the occasion... often becoming more abstract if I feel that is what I want to express.

Studying painting, sculpture and the history of art is an on-going passion for me and my own art has been largely self-taught as I prefer the freedom to explore and experiment away from a formal curriculum. Many artists inspire me with their work and I continue to learn from this by reading and visiting galleries. I am intrigued by Georgia O’Keefe’s flower studies, Barbara Hepworth’s sensuous sculptures and the inner biographical images by Frida Kahlo as she explored her reality.

I am captivated by the work of Edward Seago for his simplicity of detail to tell all that is needed in his landscape paintings...the wonder of J.M.W. Turner’s dramatic skies...and the position of tone and colour in nature studies by Sergei Bongart and Ovanes Berberian.

Every day I discover something new as I explore the world of art and its treasures.

Visitors are welcome to visit my studio and gallery and see more of my work. My paintings are included in private and corporate collections in the UK, and private collections in New Zealand and the USA.