I am a figurative artist, based in Ipswich, Suffolk, where I make expressive paintings and portraits full of nuances of light, colour and atmosphere. I work mainly in oil on canvas, in an impasto, highly textured style. I have been painting professionally for 20 years. I regularly show my work in venues in London, East Anglia and abroad. I exhibit regularly at the Buckenham gallery in Southwold, Byard Art in Cambridge and at the Pin Mill Gallery, Pin Mill, Ipswich. I also teach art evening classes at Suffolk and Otley colleges.

I first explored art seriously when I was 16 at Loughton College, on an art foundation course, but the lure of the bright lights was too much for me and I went on to study drama at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School.

However, I carried on drawing and painting whilst acting and I was lucky enough to meet a great artist, Bill Utermohlen, and I went to his studio each week to draw and paint from life, a practice I still enjoy.

		I met my fabulous and supportive husband and we started our family

an endless source of subject matter.

My paintings, then as now, are largely inspired by the urban life around me.

I have won awards for my portraits, including prizes at the Sternberg Centre in London,

and the prestigious BP Portrait Awards at the National Portrait Gallery, with a painting of my friend and mentor Bill Philby. I painted regularly with him until his death just before my third child was born. Then I finally gave up the theatre and concentrated solely on my painting.

In 1996 we went to live in Brussels for 3 years. There I attended the Ecole des Arts each week to draw and paint from the life model, as well as having exhibitions both there and in London.

When we returned to England we decided to settle in Ipswich, Suffolk, and I returned to college, both to meet people with similar interests and to push my work in a new direction. I was very excited with the results.

I explored working in other media, including using spray paint as well as oil paint on Perspex. I have extended my practice to embrace these methods and look forward to finding more new discoveries.

Now I have become well established not only for my commissioned portraits, but also for my thematic work.

A number of women artists meet upstairs at a café on Tuesday mornings (a vital link when you work on your own) and we have diverse thematic exhibitions from time to time.

I still paint regularly from a life model and I usually open my studio in the summer with Suffolk Open Studios. I am also a member of Creative Freelance, an association of creative freelance professionals based in and around Ipswich.