I grew up on a farm in the Waikato in the North Island and moved to Christchurch in my late teens. Circumstances left me with 4 young children to bring up alone so I bought and sold old properties, renovating them myself as well as completing a 2 year Certificate in Interior Design & Decoration and somehow managed to squeeze in enough time to paint! Following Polytech I started a career as a Kitchen Designer, which continues today along with my main passion … painting. I have always loved to draw and paint, and started to paint pictures for my own home. Friends saw the paintings and asked me to do one for them, or bought the works from my walls. 

 I am self taught, working in oils and mixed media, some works taking up to a month to complete as my technique involves layering colour on colour to achieve the depth and intensity achieved. “I try to evoke the feeling and atmosphere of the subject, drawing the viewer into the painting, by using my technique of colour application, texture … often ignoring reality” My work has been described as “refreshingly emotive with a surrealistic reality” I have drawn inspiration from Jochen Schmidt, my European travels, especially the Tuscany region in Italy. And I have always been drawn to true, intense use of colour.