Profile

I am primarily a watercolour painter who likes to challenge herself to paint difficult subjects, water and skies in particular, these are my latest themes. My work has taken many directions across a broad range of subjects; landscapes, portraits and still life.

Living not far from the coast near Rye, East Sussex, I find inspiration in the sea and all its many moods and changes of weather. There are so many variations to be found on the surfaces of water from a flat calm mirror like surface to wild foaming waves.

I regularly visit beaches in three locations to obtain reference; The South coast near Rye, around Southwold Suffolk and Hope Cove on the South Devon coast. 

Getting out and about with my sketchbook is very important to me, I have enjoyed drawing from a very young age, I have a variety of sketchbooks for different subject matters and mediums.

Artist Practice

I build up layers of watercolour paint, starting with washes and finishing with a dry brush or natural sponge to create more random marks or I work in mixed media, combining pencil drawing with watercolour. I paint using wet-into-wet, dry-on-dry and wet-on-dry techniques, glazing over with a number of layers, aiming to find a good balance between detail and looser mark making.

I use photography and sketches as a starting point for my paintings, often ‘designing’ the picture from a number of different images. Back in my studio, I work on a series of repeat camera images or close up details, improving the composition of the artwork. I crop and splice the reference pictures and adjust the colours using Photoshop.