When studying for my Fine Art Degree I specialised in Abstract Painting and Sculpture.

 

Taking the world around me as my source I photographed the everyday journeys that I made. I recorded them with straightforward shots of my surroundings but I also focused on interesting elements that I encountered, the way lights from shop windows fell on the pavement, bright carrier bags discarded in the road, car head lamps shining in the dark. I manipulated these images using Photoshop to enhance their unusual visual properties and used them to inform my hard-edged abstract work.

 

When simplified into basic colours most of the images still retained the key elements that drew me to take the photograph. The colours are amazing, some appear to be so unnatural and yet they were really there. These 'unusual' juxtapositions of colour have remained an important part of my current work.

 

Alongside my Abstract Painting I also create floral artworks in a variety of materials and styles including paint, crochet and origami and glass. My floral works are a celebration of colour in nature. In my paintings I focus on small sections of flowers and enlarge them to produce more striking abstract artworks.

 

I was introduced to glass fusing in 2008 after experimenting with other glass techniques but not achieving the effect I desired. It enabled me to work with colour in a new and exciting way. I developed my artwork into beautiful things that have a function around the home making owning an artwork affordable. Alongside the artistic bowls, coasters and art pieces I make a range of products using recycled jars and bottles. My crochet and origami have also inspired my range of glass flowers.

 

I have over 18 years’ experience working in education as a secondary school art teacher, design technology technician and as a freelance artist and tutor in the community covering a variety of art styles and topics. I run glass fusing workshops at my home and in the community alongside my “day job” in a school.