My art and design journey began with my mother, who believing in keeping her children occupied in the school holidays, would sit my brother and me down at the dining room table with a creative project on wet cold winter days. Stencilled coasters, beaded mats, knitted egg cosies, were all welcomed by grandparents and other relatives. Trips to museums and galleries were also part of the holiday entertainment, reproductions of great art brought home as souvenirs and hung on our bedroom walls. Now, decades later, I still have that sense of excitement when I contemplate and begin a new design or art project and I am profoundly grateful to my mother for awakening that love of creativity in me.
The huge upheaval of the last few months has thrown my life off course - I worked as a violinist in the orchestra of Phantom of the Opera in London since the day it opened in 1986, and would have stayed in the pit until retirement but for the Covid 19 pandemic. Now redundant, I am opening the next chapter of my life and will follow a new creative path wherever that may lead…… The influence of all those years working in a theatre, being surrounded by the gothic and colourful atmosphere of the show and the magic of theatre and the costumes is perhaps reflected in my work. Maybe even the black I have chosen as the background for some of this website echoes all the black I wore for so many evenings working in a West End pit.
Alongside my career as a musician I have always pursued my artistic and creative endeavours and have worked in many different mediums using a wide range of materials. I now look forward to looking through my extensive store of materials, revisiting designs and creating new work.
I love pattern and colour. I cannot imagine a world without colour, and even the most visually irregular things have a pattern if looked at more closely. I am always looking for balance in my designs, in terms of both elements.
The items for sale here represent my output over many years, some made a while ago and on sale for the first time, others made more recently. I do not know what I will make next, that will depend on my inspiration on the day, but each item is unique, and new work for sale will appear here on this website…..
