About Me

I live in rural east Herefordshire with my husband, Mike and our two children. Whilst I am working in my studio making stained glass Mike is running green woodwork courses in a nearby woodland, or working at home, writing or chair making. We have self published one book together (he wrote it and I illustrated it) and it is now in its third print run. (Check out www.living-wood.co.uk for more information about this and Mike’s green wood-working courses.)
 
Long before I met Mike I completed a degree in English literature at Stirling University (1985 -1989) where I specialised in medieval literature. I was drawn to Stirling by the landscape and the wildness of the mountains and hills. I was not disappointed and was surrounded by a suitable back-drop for the subject I was studying. My love of the language and stories of medieval literature was enhanced by the fact that much of the research material I was reading was illustrated with paintings and simple woodcuts of the period. I became immersed in a magical world of romance, strange words and naïve but arresting images, and it was not long before I began to paint and write for pleasure as well as working for the degree.
 

The Studio

After leaving university (with a first class honours degree), I worked in several different jobs and lived in Cumbria for a while before moving to Herefordshire where Mike and I had bought a woodland together with a small group of people. I then returned to college to complete a foundation year in art at Gloucester College of Art and Technology where I was expertly tutored in life drawing and discovered the highly influential work of the Brotherhood of Ruralists. (website link) A few months later I got a job working in The Collection Gallery in Ledbury which was a useful insight into the world of selling craft. It was at this time that I married Mike and soon after became a full-time mother of two. In 1999 I began an evening class in stained glass at Hereford College of Art and Design. I soon gained an OCN in the craft but continued the course for a total of four years until our second child started school. At this point I decided to take things more seriously and invested some money in a kiln and built a studio in which to work.
 

Themes and Influences

The old world of Britain runs in my veins. The whole of my adult life has been shaped by my determination to live in the countryside and to discover its ancient magic. Today most of my work is influenced by the Herefordshire countryside around our home, the orchards, the hills, the woods and all the plants, birds and animals that grow and live about. The seasons provide us with an ever changing abundance of colour and sights. Even in winter when the short gloomy days can be depressing there is the beauty of the naked trees to admire and the moonlit night to enjoy as early as five o’clock! Working with glass has really helped me appreciate and be inspired by these things.
 
However, my work is not only about, and inspired by, the physical nature of the world around me. I am also drawn to the world of myths, fairytales and our ancient connections to the landscape. This is to me the invisible tapestry that weaves and links us to our rural ancestry. I have often referred to this as our hidden memories but from the enthusiasm I meet when showing my work I now realise that it is as real for others as it is for me. This melting pot of influences is, to me, the magic of our existence, and when working I try to imbue even the smallest of pieces with a sense of this.
 
My final source of inspiration comes from the glass itself. This is a material with alchemical qualities and mystery of its own being neither a solid nor a liquid as we would normally understand them. It is produced from fairly base materials which are finely crafted whilst molten, and the final product is clear yet solid, bright-shining but coloured like the rainbow. It is a material that has been used in different forms for celebratory, spiritual and magical purposes since it was first discovered over a thousand years ago.
 

The Hare

When I painted my first hare a few years ago I had no idea of the connection I was making and the relationship I was forming! So many people are drawn to the hare and I am often asked why so much of my work contains hares. I think it could be because the hare embodies all those aspects of nature that we want to believe in, that it is wild, clever, bold and free.
 
However, the hare has also long been associated with many myths and folklore, witchcraft and shapeshifters and in a way represents the female spirit of nature just as the green man represents the male energy of nature. I think that we all have a need or desire for a spiritual connection and yet we have become alienated from the major religions of the world and somehow the hare sparks something off in peoples’ minds.