I returned to my creative practice of painting full-time in 2022 after a career in the visual arts in Edinburgh. My partner (also a painter) and I then invested in a dedicated studio in our garden.  

Early in my practice my main focus was representational painting, but now later in life I wanted to take a more challenging, less traditional/realist approach to my painting.

I have devoted time to breaking down my previous approaches to image and mark making.  I am enjoying taking familiar images down a transitional path from representation toward abstraction. As a contemporary artist living in the shadow of the iconic Forth Bridges and my native Fife, I have been inspired by the rugged and familiar beauty and serenity of the estuary and its shoreline.  I am inspired by daily walks in a around Queensferry, the shoreline and beach combing that reacquaints with the ebb and flow of life around the shoreline and it unique topography - as well as an interest in the local geology  - and water that inspires anyone who lives by the sea.

 
I concentrate my working practice on the dialogue between mark-making and passages of paint, often exploring the tension between the seen image and the traces that bring it into being. Although painting remains central, I work primarily in collage, combining Indian and Japanese handmade papers with monotype elements and finishing the surface with layered acrylic washes on paper. This process allows the physicality of the materials to play an active role in shaping the image.
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Much of my inspiration comes from the strong Scottish tradition in which the paint surface serves as a vital indicator of process—where the mark itself holds meaning and beauty. I also feel a deep connection to the painters of the Cornish landscape, whose work has given us a distinct visual language of the sea within British modern painting.