Everyday Magic & Looking Beyond the Obvious
Inside my Hidden Garden Studio with some works in progress
I believe there is magic all around us. We just have to choose to experience it.
It's in those sometimes fleeting moments when the beauty of a sunset or the soaring flight of summer swifts leave us enraptured. But also in the quiet beauty of small and overlooked things, textures of bark and mossy stone, intricate patterns of foliage and shadows and reflections in water. The blurring and softening effects of time and nature on mundane objects.
I call it the magic of the Seen - the beauty in plain view, though sometimes in unexpected places.
And then there's the magic of the Unseen, the realms of intuition and imagination. Conjured up by the eerie call of an animal at night, a shadowy movement half-glimpsed from the corner of the eye, faces seen in tree bark and clouds. All speak of the possibilities of otherworlds, beings that might exist and events that might take place, if only we could see them.
My art is a celebration of the natural world and an exploration of the supernatural.
How I Work
Much of my work begins intuitively, with random mark making and multiple layers of glazes creating texture and depth. I often use techniques and tools from my previous life as a decorative painter in these layers, adding and removing areas of paint until a form begins to suggest itself. It sounds random, and in one sense it is, but it's guided by the imagery and feelings in my mind that I want to express. I then move on to good old fashioned painting with brushes to create the more defined images.
I use leaves, grasses and seed heads in some of my work, both as printing tools and as collage. I love the idea of incorporating natural objects within the painting, encased in its layers. It deepens the connection to Nature further.
A Bit About Me
Though born and raised on the outskirts of London, I'm a country girl at heart and have always felt happiest when surrounded by nature.
I have lived in the East Anglian countryside for most of my adult life, apart from a 5 year spell by the sea on North East Scotland's dramatic Banffshire coast. Returning home in 2019, I now live and work in a Norfolk village close to the border with Suffolk and share my home with my husband and 4 rescue greyhounds. I paint in a purpose-built studio, tucked away in its own Hidden Garden surrounded by trees, flowers and a wildlife pond.
My fascination with myths, magic and the supernatural, I put down to my Celtic ancestry. My Irish grandmother would spend hours telling me stories from her homeland, tales of gods and goddesses, phantom hounds and horses, and the Little People. She also taught me to draw, and I loved to bring my fantasy worlds to life in pictures.
Although I studied art in school, and continued to draw, paint and create for pleasure, it was only after raising my children that I decided to make it a career. After gaining a diploma in interior design, I decided I wanted a more hands on outlet for my creativity, and went on to study decorative paint finishes and mural painting. I started my own business, Art and Illusion, and spent the next 14 years working on a wide variety of painting commissions throughout East Anglia and beyond.
Over time I felt an increasing desire to express my own ideas and feelings through my paintings and this is now my main focus.
I do, however, still love interpreting client's ideas and bringing them to life, and am happy to discuss artwork commissions, including large mural-style paintings on panels, canvas or wallpaper.
Upcoming
Following the success of the Under One Roof exhibition at East Harling church in July 2022, we have been invited to
stage another exhibition in the summer of 2024, and plan for this to become a regular biennial event.
We are in the initial planning stages and will announce the dates in the New Year.
Studio Notes subscribers will also receive an invitation to the private viewing, plus a discount on purchases.
Recent Events & Exhibitions
Sept/Oct 2023
Norfolk Open Studios &
South Breckland Art Trail
The Hidden Garden Studio
East Harling, Norfolk
August 2023
Inspired By Nature
Open Exhibition
Suffolk Wildlife Trust
Redgrave & Lopham Fen
April 2023
New Buckenham Arts
Open Exhibition
New Buckenham, Norfolk
October 2022
Swaffham Visual Arts Festival Open Exhibition
The Assembly Rooms, Swaffham
August 2022
Inspired by Nature
Suffolk Wildlife Trust, Redgrave & Lopham Fen
July 2022
Under One Roof
East Harling Church
(Joint organiser)
September/October 2021
Norfolk Open Studios