Biography

My first love was literature and I studied for an M.A. from Leeds University.  A couple of years teaching was followed by employment with the Peace Movement in London as Peace Education Officer during the 1980’s. After moving to Ireland, I studied art as a mature student and was awarded a B.A. in Art and Design from the Centre for Creative Arts and Media (CCAM), GMIT.

My art practice has included socially engaged portraits in egg tempera focussing on children, participating in a cross- community programme, from Belfast. I was invited to display them in Stormont, Parliament Buildings, Belfast in 2015. The same year these portraits were selected for the RDS Student Art Awards Exhibition.

I also had a socially engaged portrait selected for the Royal Hibernian Academy Summer Exhibition in 2014.

I did a series of South Roscommon landscape paintings in encaustic, cold wax and charcoal.

I spent two years in the Abbey Road Studios Athlone as a resident artist and then I taught Fetac level 6 Art and Design. I currently take part in artist in primary school residency programmes.

 In 2019 I concentrated on botanical subjects from my garden with a desire to improve my drawing and observational skills. During the covid outbreak a major garden obsession   developed resulting in the need to document it through drawing and painting.

More recently I have moved into an experimental phase with colour – interiors with textiles are the subjects of my current practice.