Biography

I was born in Newtownards, County Down, Northern Ireland and qualified as an art teacher at Stranmillis College Institute of Education, Queen’s University Belfast.

I paint in oils, tempera and water colours. My early work was representational and used urban landscapes, architecture and inner city gardens for inspiration. Recently I have returned to abstract roots but have retained images, textures and colours of the natural environment in fragmented forms.

​My current series of paintings is developed from earlier abstract watercolours, further refreshed by broken images of the architectural and natural environment from Ireland and Italy. Some of my work reflects the strong contrasting colours and patterns in nature. My many years’ teaching experience of art history, design and textiles, have influenced my work and are reflected in a sense of colour, texture, tone and pattern. I often use collage of previous work to develop the compositions. Playing with scale, selecting images and breaking up the spaces, these paintings, once completed, demand that the eye moves around the canvas, focusing on the different areas, altering visual pace. This creates a competing game between the individual parts and the totality of the whole piece. The result is a delicate yet definite balance of power woven between form and colour.

I have been exhibiting and selling my work for many years. My paintings are to be found in private, public, governmental and commercial collections in Britain, Ireland and internationally. I have been a regular exhibitor at the annual Contemporary British Art exhibitions organised by The Millinery Works Gallery, London and at the RCA Secrets Exhibition at the Royal College of Art, London. I was winner of the first prize in a Picture of Camden competition organised by The London Borough of Camden and Young and Rubicam Ltd. In 2008, I completed and had installed a public art project. The commission was part of the Integrated Arts Projects for the Castlereagh Treatment and Wellbeing Centre at Knockbreda, Belfast HSC Trust and that the project was supported by The National Lottery through the Arts Council of N. Ireland. Some of my paintings have been acquired for display in the Northern Ireland Civil Service art collection.

I am a member of the Society of Genealogists and my interest in social history and genealogy stems from wanting to know more about my own family as well as about the places where I have lived. My book, Front Door to the Past, arose from wanting to know as much as I could about my former home in North London.