Growing up in the village of Ormesby St Margaret, five miles from Yarmouth, my appreciation for rural England began. I played in the farmland that surrounded my home, and looked across arable land from my bedroom window. I fed grass to horses from the loke, and watched gymkhanas in their field. I walked to my school on the village green, where fetes were held in Summer. Walking to the village I passed St Margaret’s Church, where I liked to explore. Churches feature in my work, as a symbol of my gratitude for living in a Christian country.

Childhood journeys through Halvergate Marshes inspired me to make artworks of the drainage mills. I made a collage of a windmill for The Gallery on my favourite TV programme Take Hart. I would have been no older than eight, this is my earliest memory of creating work inspired by my homeland. This landscape had attracted artists long before me, such as the painters of the Dutch Golden Age of the 17th century. The Dutch were invited to the Norfolk Broads, to help improve drainage in the 16th and 17th centuries.

My fondest memories of my art education are whilst studying A Level Art & Design, at Great Yarmouth College 1993 – 1995. The course was very traditional and I fell in love with working from life. I realised my talent in observational art, from filling sketch books to painting nudes on canvas. The Head of the Art Department told me I was the most talented student she had had in the twenty years she had worked there. Sheila was the best teacher I ever had. At university, I struggled with the demands to produce conceptual artwork. In the plight of finding something worth saying, I found myself interested in ecological issues. My final piece was a life size copy of The Hay Wain, painted in sump oil on canvas. Feeling homesick, I was inspired by Constable’s love for his native Suffolk.

In 2004 I graduated from Sheffield Hallam University with a Degree, Bachelor of Arts with Second Class Honours (1^st Division) in Fine Art. I trained to be an Art Teacher and graduated from City College Norwich with a PGCE in Post Compulsory Education in 2006. I learned that I didn’t want to teach in mainstream education, and spent the subsequent years raising my two children. 

In 2014 I found my calling through social media. I came across a video of Haidee-Jo Summers VPROI painting en plein air, and knew this was what I wanted to do. I bought my first pochade box and set out to paint the fields and allotments of Dereham Norfolk, where I lived at the time.

In 2015 I moved to Overstrand, a coastal village of Norfolk. Whilst living there, I exhibited at the Garden House Gallery in Cromer and joined the Cromer Art Trail, taking part in Norfolk and Norwich Open Studios.

The following year I took part in my first plein air painting competition, and won second prize for Dancing Boats at Paint Out Wells. The highlight of the competition was at the award ceremony of Paint Out Norwich, where David Curtis ROI told me he’d almost chosen my painting, Swans from Bishop’s Bridge, as his judges commendation.

In 2018 I moved to Malta, and hoped I would find inspiration in the colours of the mediterranean. I never painted there, but realised the importance of a sense of place in my work. Residing in the market town of Wymondham, this is where you’ll most likely find me painting. In 2023 I took part in Paint Out Norfolk for a day of painting in Norwich. I set up on Whitlingham Broad in the pouring rain, slid and sank in ducks mess, but loved the challenge. To top it off, this piece sold in the exhibition.