I live in Central Otago, South Island, Aotearoa/New Zealand.

A lifelong love of art and painting began in my early teens and has continued to this day. However, with many years of working in different careers and raising children, time dedicated to art was minimal. I am now fortunate in that I can paint full time.

The medium I prefer is water colour.

My paintings can appear traditional both in subject and painting style. However, I try to see the subject objectively and reflectively so that each painting is a marriage between reality and imagination.

My paintings take a long time, and I am very self-critical, but it is not so much the finished work but the act of painting itself that for me is the soul of the creative endeavour.

Water colour is an exciting medium. The paint can be controlled but it can also flow, merge and blend into intriguing patterns which allows the imagination to explore interesting options within the painting. For me painting is a wonderful outlet for expressing a feeling or idea in such a way that it hopefully elicits an emotion in the viewer.

I paint what inspires or excites me, it may be the colour or the shape of the subject or perhaps merely a detail. Or it may trigger a memory or an idea. I also enjoy the challenge of capturing my thoughts on environmental issues and historical events that have shaped the world we live in. My three paintings which form part of an ongoing series entitled “Lest we Forget” encapsulate my abhorrence of war and its effects on the innocent.

The austere paradise that is Central Otago with its distinctively changing seasons is the most perfect place for me. Its stark beauty provides me with peace, calm, clarity, inspiration, and a never-diminishing desire to put brush to paper.