I like things which have been shaped by different forces and are now neglected and unloved. Projects have included broken down sheds and a forest of birch trees misshapen by the prevailing wind. I use a range of media on paper, including waterbased paint, pastels and charcoal.

For the past four years, I have been focusing on my extensive collection of rusty, worn, old tools and other mechanical, functional objects. I find them extraordinarily beautiful. They are poignant and honest and they represent lives lived, work carried out and a myriad of things crafted, repaired or maintained. They have been weathered and shaped through years of use and fit in your hand in an entirely satisfying way.

I intend primarily that the resulting artworks make people enjoy and appreciate old tools as much as I do. While I do not intend necessarily that my work majors on the back stories of the tools or provides subliminal statements about the joy of labour, my intensive studies of these objects over the past now three years has made me think more deeply about the way they have been used and the people who have used them. When they are exhibited, they attract the attention of people with a strong relationship with tools, whether through their own work or through family connections. This has led to fascinating conversations and reminiscences and also invitations to explore and celebrate personal collections of tools. 

I aim to respect the character and purpose of the tools through exploring colour, their weathered surfaces, and particularly through use of accurate drawng. If I am drawing in situ, I use pastel and compressed charcoal together, but my studi work is carried out using acrylic paint with pastel, charcoal and occasionally collage. I always draw directly from life - I have no wish ever to draw from photographs. I use simple, clear compositions and enjoy experimenting with surfaces and planes.

I graduated from Glasgow School of Art a fair while back and specialised in stitched textiles. I taught art for many years, at first in secondary schools but for the major part of my teaching career at Dundee College, where I ended up Head of the Sector for Creative Industries. In 2005 I moved to the Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Education and worked there till 2016. Since then, I have concentrated on developing my own art practice  

During all that time of my professional career, I continued to develop my skills and produce artwork as time allowed, switching in the early 1990s from textiles to drawing and painting. Since 2016, I have exhibited at RSW, Meffan Winter Show, Torrance Gallery in Edinburgh, and as part of the Scottish group at Fabriano in Acqarello in 2020. I have also taken part in Open Studios North Fife and shown my work in group exhibitions at Off the Rails Arthouse in Fife. In the past year I held a solo exhibition at Fire Station Creative in Dunfermline and a two person exhibition in Gallery@47 in Pittenweem.