My studio is in the Twisting Gallery, at Sunny Bank Mills, in Farsley, near Leeds. It is a wonderful converted woolen mill, and the location for the filming of this years Great British Sewing Bee. It is a great place to visit, as it is fast becoming a creative hub for the area and is home to many creative businesses,  including a wool shop, haberdashers, artisan brewery and cafes.

I feel honestly as though I have landed in ‘studio heaven’ as the Twisting Gallery Studios were originally the Finishing Room in the mill and so have wonderful light and large windows that give me a great view over the city.

I do feel as though I have paid my dues however as I started off as a professional artist in a little bedsit in Headingley with the help of a grant from the Prince’s Trust. I have rented studios in people’s spare rooms and out-buildings, where often there was very little heating. I always dreamed of a studio in a converted mill and amazingly in the year I  was recovering from breast cancer, in 2019, that opportunity arose at Sunny Bank Mill! So that was a ‘silver lining’ indeed!

I have a great love of flowers and have been lucky enough to have exhibited at RHS Chelsea Flower Show many times where my stand has won multiple awards.

I work in pastels predominantly although I do also do mixed media pieces and work in acrylics and oils too. The first time I used pastels was when I was 18 at art college and suddenly there seem to be things I could achieve artistically that I couldn’t in any other media, creative possibilities seemed to open up immediately.

I am the joint founder of The New Pastel School in the UK with her life long friend Rebecca de Mendonca, which run courses in pastels.

I have exhibited widely and my work has been reproduced in many forms world wide. I was commissioned to paint the national Collection of Michaelmas Daisies, at the Picton Garden in Malvern and The National Collection of the Rose. She was also Artist in Residence at RHS Harlow Carr Gardens, Harrogate for a year culminating in the ‘From the Garden Exhibition’ at their Flower Show.