I was born in June 1981 in London where I lived until 1992 when my family and I moved to a small farm, a mile from the North Devon coast. My parents run a organic sheep dairy farm and produce an award winning hard ewes' milk cheese (Dad milks the sheep and Mum makes and sells the cheese). The farm, the sea and the countryside have been strong influences on my work.
In 1999 I attended the one year Foundation Art and Design course at North Devon College in Barnstaple where I specialised in textile and three-dimensional artwork. During this course I decided that I would continue my art training.
I started my BA (Hons) in Applied Arts at Herefordshire College of Art and Design in 2000. Over the following three years I explored my interests, influences and inspirations and experimented with different ways of expressing them. I successfully completed this degree in 2003.
I remained living in Hereford City for another year and moved back to Devon and the quiet and freedom of the countryside in 2004.
My work now combines the techniques and styles I developed during my degree and the less formal enjoyment of creating, drawing and painting.
I exhibit widely and have work in private collections in America, India, Thailand and throughout the UK.
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I grew up on a farm situated on the North Devon coast with views across the Bristol Channel. The landscape I am familiar with is made up of rolling countryside, laced together by the tracery of Devon hedge banks, sporadically populated by sheep, or perhaps a farmer with his dogs. To the East are the hills of Exmoor, to the South West, Dartmoor and Bodmin Moor and to the North, across the Bristol Channel, the Gower Peninsular and the Welsh Coast. These and the nearer hills are altered by the varying atmospheric conditions, sometimes seeming to disappear in a series of planes that fade into the distance.
My work is inspired by this scenery. I am aware of the fragility of the world I live in and endeavour to express this and the beauty I see around me in the hope that what we have will be appreciated and protected.
I choose the medium to suit the image I want to express. I use natural fibres to create an impression of contours, planes, horizons and distance. Simplicity emphasises distance and colour suggests atmosphere - the lines drawn by the thread are minimal and natural. Again using delicate colour change, I paint small watercolour landscapes. My most recent work experiments with ink, using only black and white. Here I am interested in the use of chance marks which I accentuate to create the final image. |
