My Story

ABOUT ME

Like many artists, my talent for art emerged in my young years and I was always drawing at home and loving my art classes at school.  Then, for reasons not quite known and despite my art teacher telling me I should pursue an artistic career, I turned away from my creative side and so began a career as a police officer. Further along the way I balanced the demands of my job by qualifying as a yoga instructor! I have no regrets about my chosen paths and always had in the back of my mind the idea that I would return to my art when the time was right. I am still left in wonder how that precious ability lay dormant for so long within me, waiting to re-emerge. 

Things changed for me when I was diagnosed with a connective tissue disorder. It was the wake up call I needed to re-assess my lifestyle. Around the same time I began attending a local art class and after that, as they say, there was no looking back! After far too many art deprived years and now retired from the police and managing a healthier lifestyle, I can finally realise my calling as an artist. The combination of a new chapter in my life, the desire to create art and having a great mentor (Artist Tom Rennie) all have gotten me through the transition period and I am now so grateful to have my own business as an artist.

Therefore it is no real surprise that I come from a working background of experiencing intense situations, where tensions are highly charged and emotions are raw.  I have witnessed the fragility of life, chaotic scenes requiring me to notice the less obvious detail and be intuitive, sensitive and direct.  All of this has had a profound influence on the way I am as a person and the way I create my art.  I seek and remain fascinated by human expression and evanescence, those fleeting moments of time that I strive to delicately capture in art form.  Whether my subject is human, animal, still life or landscape, my aim is the same…to portray the less obvious detail with sensitivity and atmosphere.  Perhaps to show the mundane or more ordinary as something more alluring. Living where I am in rural Ayrshire I am grateful to be surrounded and continually inspired by nature and the outdoors, and here beauty abounds.

I love the feel of paint on my brush connecting with the surface and the combination of thin application and thicker, impasto marks to create texture and interest.

Apart from my secondary school certificates of merit in Art (yes, I still cling onto them!) my informal art education is made up of life experience and art class study/mentoring over the last 4 years.. As in life, I continue to learn and develop my skill.

UPCOMING EXHIBITIONS:

Paisley Art Institute Spring Exhibition, Glasgow Art Club

Troon Art Club Summer Exhibition

Samphire Gallery, Castle Douglas Summer exhibition

PREVIOUS EXHIBITIONS:

2024 Firefly Gallery, Bo’ness - Spring exhibition

2024 Portrait exhibition, Cutty Sark Centre, Ayr

2023 Firefly Gallery, Bo’ness

2023 Maclaurin Art Gallery Ayr

2023 Troon Art Club Annual Exhibition.

2022 Firefly Gallery, Bo’ness

2022 PAI Annual Exhibition, Glasgow Art Club.

2022 Dunure Annual Art Exhibition

2022 Harbour Arts Centre, Irvine

2020 Gracefield Art Centre Lockdown Exhibition, Dumfries.

2020 Online Dunure Art Class Exhibition (ArtSteps)

2019 Grain Exchange, Ayr

2019 Dunure Annual Art Exhibition, Kennedy Hall, Dunure.