I studied Fine Art Sculpture in Norwich in the 80’s, before changing course to maintain and design gardens in London until the early 90’s. The church-studded countryside and shingle coast of East Anglia beckoned me back to study countryside management, ecology and botany in Suffolk. Working as an ecologist for the next three decades, I eventually specialised in the restoration of grasslands, particularly traditional flower-filled hay meadows. I moved to north Lancashire in the late 90’s and now live in a drumlin field, between the millstone grit of Bowland and the bird-filled dramatic ambience of Morecambe Bay.  

The place I feel most at home is outside, amongst waving grasses, deep cool lanes or shingly beaches with stacked rock or cliffs. I’m especially fulfilled in or close to water - lakes, rivers and the ever changing seas around Britain. Family holidays were spent swimming, boating and fishing on the Thames, the Pembrokeshire and Lleyn coasts, or cold inland lakes. Snorkelling added a third and quiet dimension to the waves and winds, a tender world of shifts and swirls, fish hanging in the water, weed gently echoing the current and tide.

Evening classes after work in Kendal made me confront my fear of sheet glass and I learnt to cut, shape, fire and paint it. This magical medium that is neither solid but fluid, stiff yet flowing, brilliant or sombre depending on the surrounding light was a revelation and has endless possibilites. I find myself inspired to capture birds of all kinds, local plants and journeys around the coast, and scenes of domestic life echoing medieval drawings and paintings of people at work or in the throes of a biblical event. The sea, life within it, and those who work from the sea.

I mostly work in stained glass using traditional methods of glass painting with black, brown and reddish oxides, which are fired in a high temperature kiln to become permanent. I also use sgraffito, where paint is removed using a sharp point to reveal the image underneath. My work is traditionally leaded, soldered and cemented, and often set in frames of found driftwood or hangs from chandler’s halyard steel twine.