I have been painting and creating since I could walk.

 

My simple working class childhood was filled with a passion for drawing and painting the animals and people around me.

 

At the age of thirteen I won a scholarship to work with an Art School in the UK and France, including Dieppe and Rouen, alongside my general schooling.This was a fabulous experience but I often feel that I would appreciate it far more now, at the age of 53.

 

On leaving school I was offered a place studying Fine Art, but I was also offered an Apprenticeship as a Commercial Artist.This was the age of the YTS Scheme, £25 per week for 12 months, if you were VERY lucky! So, I took the job and and forged a career as a Commercial Artist. 

 

During this time of corporate pressure and deadlines, the creative bug never left me and I spent my spare time painting, refurbishing antiques, designing interiors and textiles, working in my son’s school with the kids teaching art, and being generally ‘arty’.

 

Twelve years ago I decided to leave the world of tidy desks for the sake of my sanity. I decided that I needed to follow my dream completely, regardless of the costs - and there were plenty.

 

Since then life has exploded to include tuition - both private and groups, demonstrations, community projects of interior design, up-cycling furniture ventures, fabrics designs, murals, private commissions, large scale oils and exhibitions along with a dynamic portfolio of artwork including that of the equine, for which i am most revered.

 

Teaching others is my passion which has evolved into my

ever-expanding portfolio of workshops and demonstration in painting and creativity.

 

Not only do I teach people to paint, but to access their creative minds - because we all have one - we just lock them away somewhere.

 

I believe that in a somewhat dark world it is so very important to be creative. It is the fundamental basis of mental, physical and spiritual well-being and I have seen so many people evolve from anxiety, stress and sadness through getting in touch with their creative side, through being in a group and being able to relax and express themselves freely in all mediums.

 

Creativity as a tool for well-being is vastly underrated in my opinion and this is something I focus upon every single day.