About
Born in Northampton 1936, my journey in making art has taken me down many paths and has been exiting and varied in the forms it has taken. It is only in recent years, mainly since retiring in 2000, that I have been able to give more time to the passion I have for making art. Until this period of my life my work was at very intermittent intervals. My wish when I left school at 16 was to go to Art School but cost and distance meant that this would not be possible and I did not produce any further work until many years later.
The passion to be creative and make art was still very strong and when occasions arose I was able to fulfil this desire but only in short bursts.
I decided in 1999, that given the opportunity, I would pursue this further and aim to do a Fine Art degree when I retired or soon after. In the same year I went on a Contemporary Workshop course at the St. Ives School of Painting and knew from then on that I would be making art at every opportunity and St.Ives and the surrounding area would become increasingly important in my future work. I completed an Access to Fine Art Course in 2003 and went on to do a BA in Fine Art at UCE, graduating in June 2006 with Honours at the age of 70. In the same year I joined a group of artists in shared studios at The Grid, near Rugby and continue to work from there.
Although Cornwall, and in particular St. Ives, have an important influence, my work continues to be very varied and I find enjoyment in painting, collage, printing and some video work, painting in various media being the bulk of my output. Inspiration comes from many facets – the landscape, the village I live in and the events that take place there, found objects, the metamorphosis of objects and the forces of nature. Above all, I do like to experiment with different materials and making my art in different ways. I am becoming more and more interested in digital art and photography and hope to develop further along these lines in future years.
I have said many times, that making art to me is a journey that is both exciting, invigorating and satisfying but can also become frustrating, and has led me in many different directions, all of which I have enjoyed.