I am an artist living in Edinburgh Scotland. I spent the first half of my life in Australia. I grew up in the outback in a landscape that is arid and flat with intense light, heat and colour, a landscape that is as harsh as it is beautiful. Now living in Scotland, I am immersed in a landscape that couldn’t be more different: a landscape of mountains and rivers, lochs and moors, a land that can at times, be shrouded in soft mist and at other times have clear pure light; a landscape of subtle colour shifts.

I came to painting late in life. For many years I have kept sketchbooks in which I draw and paint places I see on my travels and of the areas around where I live. These are realistic, albeit sketchy, representations of what I see. My paintings however, are different. These are abstractions of what I sense and feel about a place, be it wilderness, urban or domestic, at the time or from fleeting memories and impressions.

My work is multi-layered, and I work in acrylic paint. I subtract and erase as much as I add paint, through scratching, scraping back and sanding. In some ways this reflects the history and impact of nature and people on place. My process is one of play and experimentation, frequently starting with no intentions, until something starts to reveal itself. When this happens I begin to refine and hone the painting sometimes through the addition of marks using other media such as pencil, ink or pastels.

I paint because it makes me happy. It brings me joy and contentment.