I was fortunate enough to grow up surrounded by a wonderful art collection in my parents’ home in Perthshire, Scotland. It wasn’t until my young family and I moved to Somerset, however, that I first picked up a paint brush with intent. Although I’d been working as a picture framer previously, and have always been a creative at heart, I had no formal art training and no idea that fine art painting was to become such a huge part of my life.

Since then, I’ve spent many long evenings after the children are in bed honing my painting skills across a variety of mediums and subject matters, and have settled on a preferred medium of oil paints. I love the slow-drying flexibility of oils that allows me to blend and play with the texture of the paint as I work. The majority of my pieces are created in one sitting, ‘alla prima’, which I feel encourages me to paint in a loose, energetic style. It also helps prevent the ever-tempting desire to over-work the artwork.