About the Artist
As a child I was always drawing and art was a favourite subject at school. At 18, faced with the dilemma of whether to apply for art college or university to study languages, I chose the more academic route, which led to a career in translation.
Happily, I never stopped drawing and seized every opportunity to develop my artistic skills. A few years ago, while living in the foothills of the French Pyrenees, I started drawing and painting in sketchbooks, capturing scenes from everyday life in the towns, villages and countryside of the Languedoc.
Working in line-and-wash, pure watercolour or acrylic, inspired by the light and colours of southern Europe, I developed a distinctive style: illustrative without being photographic, it conveys a strong sense of place and mood. I have a particular fondness for long, late-afternoon shadows cast across a sunlit road, or the intricate tracery of bare trees silhouetted against a winter sky.
After a decade in France, I returned to my native northwest England where I now draw inspiration from the rugged moorland landscapes, old woollen mills and weaver’s cottages of Saddleworth, as well as the contrasting urban environment and industrial architecture of Greater Manchester.