ABOUT
I was born in Rugby in the UK and my earliest memories are painting with my father. He was a keen amateur watercolourist and taught me how to recognise paints by their taste (!) - I remember Rose Madder being particularly sweet. Paint and colour has always been a multi-sensory experience for me.
I studied at the Ruskin School of Fine Art in Oxford and on graduating received a place at the Royal College of Art. I couldn’t make the finances work at the time so got a job as an Art Director in advertising. For 30 years I worked with and alongside some of the world’s best directors, photographers, artists and designers.
On my 50th birthday I left advertising to dedicate myself to panting. I joined the Turps Art School to re-engage myself with painting and set up a studio in Soho. During lockdown my studio was demolished so I moved to the Isle of Wight. I now paint in a lovely old stables and coach house, surrounded by rolling countryside.
I have exhibited widely, including at the National Portrait Gallery and with the Royal Society of Marine Artists, the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolour and the Royal Institute of Oil Painters. My work has been featured in Vogue magazine and is in the collection of Art UK. In 2021 I won the Ashurst Emerging Artist Prize.
2010 - present
2010 - present
Statement
Lust for life is the ongoing subject of my painting. Nature, natural forms and the changing seasons infuse my work.
Inspired by nature I work intuitively. I work in series directly onto the canvas. I begin my paintings by creating a state of chaos and then, over many layers, I search for beauty within the chaos. The painting's history is important to me. I scratch back into the paint as much as I add to the surface.
Colour provides the emotion in the work. I think of colour in musical terms: jazzy, dancing, loud, soft, minimal, Baroque. I always play music whilst I am painting.
My paintings are a celebration of life, even if they are tinged with sadness. I do not believe you can have one without the other.
Education
2020 Turps Art School
1983 Ruskin School of Fine Art and Drawing, Oxford University (BA)
Awards
2022. The Cult House open, Shortlist
2021. Overall winner Ashurst Emerging Artist prize
2021. Quay Arts Biennial selected artist
2020. Shortlisted for the Jackson's Art Painting Prize
2018. Winner of the Whytham Hall. Art Prize
2016. Winner of the Windsor and Newton Oil Painting prize, Royal Society of Marine Artists.
Exhibitions / Art Fairs
2023
HYGGE, On the Lam, online exhibition.
Sunny Art Prize, London
2022
The Cult House open, online exhibition
Zealous Amplify, online exhibition
"Literature" Cheltenham Literary Festival @ Spring Gallery, Cheltenham
Oxmarket Open, Chichester
Group Show. Los Angeles
London Art Fair
"Six" selected artists at Quay Arts, Isle of Wight
Contemporary British Painting: Paradoxes 52 Painters. Quay Arts, Isle of Wight.
2021
Solo exhibition "Spiritus Mundi" at Ashurst Emerging Artist Gallery, London
Quay Arts Biennial, Isle of Wight
Shortlist exhibition, Ashurst Emerging Art Prize, Ashurst Emerging Artist Gallery, London
Turps Group Show - Thames-side Studios, London
2020
Group show. Los Angeles.
2019
Isle of Wight Biennial, Quay Arts, Newport.
Turps Group Show - The Art Academy, London
Turps Final Group Show - Turps Gallery, London
Group Show - Hundred Years Gallery, London
Group Show - Creekside Open, London - Curated by Brian Griffiths
Supermarket Art Fair - Stockholm
2018
"Set 24". Group Show - The Art Academy, London
Group Show. Flowers Central - Cork Street, London
"Small is Beautiful." Flowers Central - Cork Street, London
Whytham Hall Art Prize exhibition, London