I completed my Masters degree at Reading University in 1987 - and have continued to produce my art work and pottery - Painting is an essential creative and spiritual activity for me, intuitive, therapeutic and meditative, an internal exploration. The female figure acts as a symbolic device that enables me to express ideas, feelings and emotions. It is important to have some colour in your life. It lifts your spirit. Whether in nature or art, colour has a direct emotional impact. I wonder what it might be like to live in a world without colour? We are aware of life through our senses - we see, we hear, we touch, we smell, we taste. This is how we experience and how we are aware that we are alive. Art is a way to communicate this experience.
I have made little pinch pots for years. I see them as an additional vehicle for expressing the ideas and images that appear in my drawings and paintings. Each pot is individual and they are an acccessible and affordable way for me to share my work with many people. I have made thousands of pots over the years, no two pots are the same and they are spread far and wide.
I love the freedom of expression in children's art, this also applies to primitive and outsider art. I enjoy looking at the work of artists who respond to these influences.
I enjoy working with children, it feels like a natural thing for me to do, to encorage their creativity. Alongside my own art practice I run childrens art and craft workshops and Art projects -producing murals and mosaics. This provides me with the opportunity to maintain a balance between time in my studio and time out in the world sharing what I have.
It is important to keep the child in you alive and not to lose your love of life and your faith. being creative enables you to do this and there are many ways to be creative.