My first memories of painting are joining my Grandma, also a painter, at her dining table with a set of oil paints and a blank canvas.  We went out to the garden, picked some roses and spent the next few weeks painting them.

The smell of roses mixed with turpentine is still one of my favourite scents!

In 2010 I decided to go back to the thing I loved most and signed up for evening classes at Oldham Art Gallery working in watercolour, collage and printmaking. From this point, I joined classes at Manchester Art Gallery and eventually moved into illustration, studying children’s picture book making at Cambridge School of Art and Queens University, Belfast. For the last 7 years I have had the honour to train with esteemed fine artists, Christiane and Katharina Kubrick, wife and daughter of the American film director Stanley Kubrick, Camilla Clutterbuck, Polly Hobbs, Ali Yanya and Jenny Wheatley at Childwickbury School of Fine Art, Hertfordshire.

I work mainly in watercolour and my subjects are still life flowers and woodland landscapes. For me flowers and ancient trees symbolise the fleeting beauty of life, from fresh green bud to spectacular blossom onto the rich, faded colours at the end of the life cycle.

I also have an interest in The Language of Flowers and how they have been used and combined to pass messages of love and support to others. Flowers still form a very important part of our daily life, whether in romance, friendship, bereavement. celebration or just to brighten the kitchen table.

My intention is to celebrate the glory of nature for others to enjoy for a little longer than the average bloom.

My wonderful florists and friends, Christine, Natalie and Eamonn at Garden of Eden, Rochdale provide gorgeous cut flower arrangements for me to paint from and I also love painting the beautiful and interesting vases made by glass artist, Siddy Langley, Devon.