As a child, I loved to draw and paint, and I was lucky to have parents that encouraged me. I grew up near to the North Yorkshire Moors National Park, and as a family we spent a lot of time going for walks there, I think this greatly inspired my love of nature, the outdoors, and light.
I studied A level art, and sold my first painting aged 18.
However, I also had a passion for dance, and decided to attend the Rambert School of Ballet and Contemporary dance, graduating from the professional dancers course.
I continued to paint and sell my work whilst studying, and upon graduating, felt increasingly drawn to explore art rather than pursue a career in dance. I decided to take a foundation art course at St Martins College of Art and Design, after which I directed my own studies into the techniques of the late 19th and early 20th century realist and impressionist oil painters. I discovered that the discipline and focus I had gained from my studies in dance were skills which transferred well into learning realist oil painting techniques, and the feelings that I was once able to express through dance, I can now put into my paintings.
Over the last couple of years, I have been increasingly drawn to flowers as a subject, for their graceful beauty and complexity and also memories and associations from childhood ( my mum is a very keen gardener!)
I also love to work outdoors (en plein air), painting landscapes and flowers , where the changing light and seasons are a constant inspiration. My studio landscapes refer to a combination of studies from life, photographs, memory and imagination. Working from memory and imagination in particular helps me to distill the essence of what inspired me to paint the scene.
I started exhibiting In 2008, and since then have taken part in numerous group and open exhibitions including the ROI annual exhibition and the Discerning Eye.
I was awarded the Huxley purchase prize in 2010.
My work has been exhibited and collected in the UK and internationally. In 2015 I took a break from painting to care for my two young children, returning in 2018.
You can listen to a podcast were I chat with Sarah Ryan, founder of New Blood Art gallery here.