About me

I balance my art practice with my work as a psychotherapist.

I began my career as a primary teacher, specialising in art. I developed a keen interest in creativity and the links with well-being and went on to gain a distinction for my MA in Art Education from the University of Central England, Birmingham.

Seeking freedom from the confines of the classroom, I moved into gallery education and went on to develop a consultancy practice in the field of art education. Clients included a number of local authorities, Arts Council England, the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, NESTA, the Clore Duffield Foundation, Southbank Centre and the Arts Council Collection. I also worked as the primary schools visual arts advisor / inspector for Hampshire County Council.

All this time I was making art. While life classes were my training ground in observation, line and proportion, the drama and energy of the landscape was my inspiration for more expressive explorations in mark-making and colour.

While art was often a solitary pursuit, I was also deeply interested in people. I trained as a coach with RD1st (through the Cultural Leadership Programme) and as an action-learning set facilitator (with Action Learning Associates). Seeking to work more deeply with people’s complexities, in 2008 I began training as a psychotherapist. More than a professional training, this was a journey of self-discovery which had a deep impact on my life and creative practice. I started taking myself more seriously, cherishing my creativity and making work with greater authenticity.

In 2014 I was hungry to make time for my painting practice, so I took a sabbatical and spent four months living on an island in Scotland. In the tiny cottage I rented, one room was taken up with cooking, eating, keeping warm and watching the storms pass across the sea. The other became my studio and a place where I could play with paint, capturing the island colours as winter gave way to spring.

The Covid pandemic brought more time to paint, and I countered the isolation of lockdown by setting up a Facebook group ‘Adventures in Paint’, offering weekly painting challenges for anyone who cared to joined in. This led to the development of my successful online teaching programme ‘Adventurous Painters’. You can see work produced by participants on the programme in the gallery below.

I live near Bridport in Dorset.