About me

I share my life with my husband, two teenage sons and one golden retriever, and we live on the Isle of Wight in a 100-year-old house beside the sea.

From our cliff-top vantage point on this diamond-shaped island just off England’s south coast we have become particularly well-acquainted with the elements.  Fresh sea air is ours in abundance – but when the winds roll in off the English Channel you can be sure we’re the first to know about them!  Thanks to the warm sun, which regularly clocks up more hours here than anywhere else in the UK, the plants in our garden soar to ever greater heights.  We grow herbs and a selection of vegetables and flowers.  In a very small wooded area of the garden I like to encourage shade-loving woodland plants to grow, and I go there whenever I want to think about fairies and tree sprites.  And of course, just over the fence, there is the sea – beautiful in all its guises: moody grey; sparkling blue; deep, calm azure; or a breathtaking obsidian backdrop reflecting a full moon on a cloudless night.

Since moving here in 2003, this house, this garden and this beautiful island have been my home, my inspiration and sometimes the source of my materials.  It’s here that I’ve learned to live more in tune with the rhythm of the seasons, and to feel more connected with the earth – both of which I try to draw upon in my artwork.

At one level my creative projects are simply the things I enjoy doing by way of relaxation, producing items I find pleasing and want to have.  Digging a little deeper, my love affair with ‘handmade’ is a political and life choice statement: a stand against the aggression, expansionism, greed and consumerism that have become central to the way our society works.  My large needle art projects are all about ‘slow living’: they take many hours of work to complete and draw upon my love of natural materials and my exploration of themes such as the balance between feminine and masculine energy (or yin and yang); belonging; connection and ancestry.  I want these to be passed on to and valued by my children and their descendents.  I balance these large projects with quicker digital photography, garden- and paper-craft projects, in which I enjoy exploring themes such as language and culture, myth, spirit, secret places and folklore.  I’d like to incorporate more of our garden produce in what I do – apart from eating it, that is! – experimenting with natural dyes, for example; and I want to do more projects that combine some or all of these techniques in mixed media projects.

Apart from these creative outlets and trying to develop the artist in me, I enjoy family times, walking on the beach with our dog Lucy, reading, belly dance (really not very well!), music and developing my Spanish and French language skills.

If you enjoy what you read and see, do make yourself at home and stay a while.  You’re very welcome!