I’m a visual person, all about shapes and symmetry, expressing this through my love of interior design, fashion and typography. I notice how things fit together and line up, I get easily distracted by how a curve leans into a surface or how the weight of chunky lettering helps a delicate photograph on a vintage poster. I’m impressed by figurative art that has personality as well as graphic, bold, abstract artwork. I try hard to combine at least a few of these elements in my art.

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My background is a little more eclectic than I’d planned. All I ever wanted to do was draw people, but I didn’t really understand what a career doing that looked like. I was removed from Fine Art when it was obvious that I am colourblind, so I switched to Animation, because I’d seen an old film of Disney artists drawing Cinderella sat in a circle around a dancing actress. I hated the Animation degree, their obsession with concept over drawing quality didn’t inspire or encourage me. 

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I then worked in advertising as a business director supporting big brands such as John Lewis, Barclays, Vittel, Ryvita and L’Oréal. Whilst I loved the glamour of clicking across Soho with my Gwyneth Paltrow cropped hair and skyhigh heels, I dropped it all when I got impossibly pregnant (I’d been told after too many operations that it wouldn’t be an option) 

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So, the next chapter began when my husband, (together since we were 16) our new 1 year old and a massive bump, soon to become kid number 2 all emigrated to Paris. I adore Paris and thoroughly enjoyed hanging out with our kids and made friends for life. When the kids went to school, I was lucky enough to draw at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière, indulging in 8 hours a week of life drawing for 5 years. This was an absolute joy and such a privilege to be in surroundings established over a 100 years ago, once inhabited by the best French Impressionist painters.

 

My French isn’t as good as it could be, I could chat to a 10 year old about peanut flavoured crisps but it became apparent that my knowledge of chemistry or history in French was a bit lax. With a heavy heart, we returned to the UK to support the kids through their education - don’t ever mention Brexit to me. 

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It’s taken me a while to find my feet, hugely sidetracked with breast cancer and a year of chemo and radiotherapy (now fully in remission, thankfully), I’ve been a full time artist for 3 years now and intend to stick at this for a while, hopefully.