ARTIST BIO

I have been a creative beastie all my life and fortunate enough to have some very supportive, encouraging, family members and friends surrounding me who also provide honest constructive criticism. As well as being a visual artist I am also a milliner, commercial artist, Metal sculptor, Registered nurse, Nursing teaching and diversional therapist, by combining all of my knowledge and skills has shaped my creativity and passion for producing Visual Art.

I enjoy every aspect of art, the design process, the immersion, the outcome.

I have a fascination with the colour, texture and intricacies of landscapes, flora and fauna.  Nature inspires me and I endeavour to bring a tactile element to my art. I want people to feel like they need to touch it, to draw them into every tiny detail and cell of the painting. You can only find such a flowing rigidity and natural progression in nature, and everyone sees something different that speaks to them, this is the basis of my art.

As a visual artist I work using varied mediums being, but not limited to:

Oils, Acrylics, Water colour, pencil, charcoal, watercolour pencils, oil pastel,  wool, felt, fabric, fur, silk, sinamay, parasisal straw, jinsin, acrylic skins, resin, feathers, beads, wire, wood, steel, Aluminium

The importance of being creative, and fortunate to have had many and varied experiences and skills, was amplified for me while being a diversional therapist working with the elderly and Psychiatric patients, and more recently when my daughter sustained a brain injury. My daughter has been able to tap into a skill that she did not know she possessed which has made her recovery amazing and inspirational.

I also found comfort and healing by continuing my art after suffering a stroke, and am producing my best ever work with a new attitude, enthusiasm and thankfulness. I have witnessed throughout my career immense enjoyment, pleasure and healing using visual arts in our health / care facilities and am an advocate for art therapy as part of their holistic care. 

My art is experimental, I enjoy pushing the boundaries and limits of different mediums.  I create to satisfy my own needs initially, if people enjoy what I produce and they get a sense of meaning from it, I have achieved what I set out to do.

I call my form of art, therapeutic art or arts health, I envisage it being hung in private homes, health care facilties and public spaces to enable people to escape their pain, trauma and worries by being absorbed and cocooned in the piece I have created.