Originally from N.Ireland, I now live at the foot of the South Downs outside Brighton in West Sussex with my husband.

I enjoyed teaching English in secondary schools, until I retired in 2013 giving me time to be creative. Literature has been a constant for me, for the way in which it challenges and enriches my view of life and just for the sheer beauty of the words.

My paintings and drawings are primarily an emotional response to a subject rather than what I see. When I work, I become absorbed in memories - of colours, of pale suns, snow, mist and soft rain, plants, trees, bogs, birds, fields full of wildlife – all things sown deep in my sub-conscious from my Irish childhood.

My work is a slow contemplative process, building up marks, removing and adding layers. I think of the repetitive marks found in clouds, petals, pollen granules, fern fronds, insect wings and feathers. Metaphorically, the rhythmic repetition of marks is like that found in the cadences of poetry, litanies and literature so I’m aiming for the same effect as these things.

I’m interested in writers who evoke the poetry of landscape. Seamus Heaney has been a big influence: I was born in the same area of N. Ireland, so his words chime with what I have known. Robert Macfarlane’s ‘Landmarks’ and Alexandra Harris’ ‘Weatherlands’ have been treasure troves of anecdote and linguistic gold. While reading them, I was stimulated to write and from that writing, new ideas for painting and drawing are emerging.

I like to reflect on nature as it tips from the cusp into something else – flowers to seeds, blossom to pods, stones to tiny shavings of dust. I think of the seethe and hum of nature as I work. The precariousness, fragility and little astonishments of life are what appeal to me.