I am inspired by the colours and textures of the landscape around me. My grandmother taught me a love of nature and its colours when I was a child and since then I have always been influenced by colour. However, my artistic attempts were not encouraged at school, and it was not until much later that I began painting in order to record my responses to the landscapes which ‘grab’ me.

Whereever I am, walking the countryside near home or on my travels, I usually have my sketching equipment with me. I spend just a few minutes on each sketch to grab the essence of the scene - they are not meant to be works of art.

A bonus of even just a few minutes sketching is that you become fully aware of the scene, not just of what you see but the sounds and smells too. Another bonus is the people I meet, some who stay to chat, tell me about the place or guide me to more views. All of this adds up to making sketches more evocative than photographs.

Back at home I use these sketches to create paintings full of colour and memories of the places I have been. I work mostly in watercolour, but like to mix it with inks, pastels and various texture making media. On days when I can’t think what to paint or where to start I will spend time ‘playing’ with paint effects. What will happen if I use .......? - then wait to see what the results suggest: a summer hedgerow, woodland, moody Dartmoor, towering snow-covered arctic mountains.

I sell my work at exhibitions, local venues and art fairs. There are examples of my work in collections locally and further afield, as far as New York, Uganda, Canada and Australia.