I left my full-time teaching career some years ago and started working tirelessly to master oil painting, being lucky enough to study for a number of years under a highly regarded painter and attending a range of classical painting classes. I practice life drawing most days and enjoy delving into colour theory in a constant bid to improve and develop my art practice. It is this love of learning new things that also makes me an enthusiastic teacher and I love nothing more that seeing a student’s face light up as they find a solution to a problem they had or produce a piece of work they are simply amazed by. Being able to help others realise a piece of art that they had conjured up in their minds is a wonderful experience.

Printmaking is where I like to lose myself. I first trained at The Glasgow Print Studio in stone lithography but after a spinal injury I switched to making multi-layered textural monotypes and experimental screen prints (easier on the back). As an experimental printmaker I enjoy utilising the element of chance in this form of art making. There something quite magical and raw about the basic action of pressing down an object or making marks into wet ink and printing the result.

Most recently I realised that I wanted to take this even further and incorporate this style of intuitive working into my newest paintings. In my most up to date work I find I am taking the skills I have learned from experimental printmaking and incorporating them into my painting practice. I am pushing myself to master the advanced principles of composition and use of colour, alongside explorations in textures and collaged imagery. The vehicle of abstract art is perfect to develop these nuances and it is exciting to work so freely, untethered by definite subject matter. These new paintings push beyond the realm of replicating real subjects are a chance for me to work from the heart.

All my work centres around telling stories, whether it be fairytales and myths or collected stories and ideas from my travels. I feel so fortunate to have had the opportunity to have seen and learned about other far off places. To have had the time to examine their cultures and learn what lives in people’s hearts and all the other wonderful, and not-so wonderful, things in the world is a privilege and I want to share these experiences through my prints and paintings.