I was born and bought up in mid Wales. I gained a BA Hons in Visual Studies at Norwich School of Art and Design, where, influenced by minimalist artists such as Agnes Martin and Sol LeWitt my degree show consisted of a series of large canvases of pink and white grids. On returning to Wales I began to paint the surrounding landscape then feeling the need for a ‘proper job’, worked in galleries and museums and somehow became a primary school teacher … I managed to escape and came to live in Edinburgh about twelve years ago to be nearer bigger mountains and return to my art.

As I lived and worked in the Georgian New Town I was immediately inspired by the surrounding architecture, and I became known for my mixed media and collaged works of the crescents and tenements. Driven by an environmental concern for minimising waste, and a love of aged and worn surfaces, I collected and utilised old books, sheet music and maps, continuously exploring different ways of layering and combining them with multiple materials and techniques such as screen printing and mono print. I have thus supported myself as a full time artist for the past 12 years, been selected to show in the RSA, SSA and RSW Opens, had a number of solo exhibitions at private galleries, and completed numerous private and corporate commissions.

I have recently, after very much thought, made a change in my creative direction and returned to my initial inspirations as an art student. Through removing any subject or meaning and working with simple repetition of grids and lines, I’m experimenting with the combination of various printing processes such as collagraph and intaglio to achieve unique effects and marks . As a member at Edinburgh Printmakers I can use the large etching presses to make more ambitious sized works and learn things from knowledgable and experienced printmakers. Here in my studio with my own smaller press, surrounded by my other materials and equipment, I can work more intuitively, responding and reacting to results and processes as I go, embracing discoveries in accidents and imperfections. Due to this intuitive process each piece is different and unique, there are no editions.

My aim is to create complex layers of marks and tone that are beautiful in their simplicity, fragility and perfect imperfection.

‘My paintings are certainly nonobjective. They’re just horizontal lines. There’s not any hint of nature. And still everybody responds, I think.’ - Agnes Martin

‘A discovery is said to be an accident meeting a prepared mind.’ - Albert Szent-Gyorgyi