I
grew up in Wiltshire, and find the wide open spaces of Salisbury
Plain and the Downs with their White Horses cut into the chalk still
exert their influence on me. I now live at Milford-on-Sea on the
south coast in Hampshire, but was very happy to resume connections
with my original home when I was elected a member of Bath Society
of Artists a few years ago. Travelling over the Plain to Bath for
exhibitions renews the excitement I find in the open landscape of
Wiltshire.
Over
the years I have tried various media, but have found that acrylic
has given me the most scope to experiment. I love to play with different
textures and glazes, and to add collage, charcoal and oil pastel
to create mixed media paintings with rich surfaces built up of many
layers. Really the subject matter is the vehicle for the paint.
I
often choose still life as a subject. Most of the objects in these
paintings come from my imagination, rather than being things set
up in the studio. Another subject which has fascinated me recently
is huts. I live in a village by the sea, and the wind and sea battered
encampment of beach huts at Hordle Cliff is close to my house. These
huts sit on the pebble beach under the cliff and face wind, rain,
sun and storm all year round. They gradually lean, twist, warp and
weather. For some time I have been making a series of paintings,
both figurative and abstract, based on these huts and the weathering
process. A visit to Hastings in Sussex recently has resulted in
another series based on the tall dark multi storey fishing huts
which sit on the beach there.
My
work has been included in exhibitions at Southampton, Portsmouth
and Bath City Galleries, the Royal West of England Academy Bristol,
and in various commercial galleries in London and the South of England.
Paintings are now in private and corporate collections in many parts
of the United Kingdom, including the collection of the Bank of England
and Hampshire County Council’s Permanent Collection.
