I was born in Hertfordshire, UK and studied at Newcastle University and Chelsea School of Art, London before taking up a Fellowship at Cheltenham School of Art and an Artist-in-Residence post at Hull School of Art, UK. I was awarded a Japanese Government Scholarship in 1987 and spent two years as a Research Scholar in Painting at Kyoto City University of Arts Japan. Following my return to the UK in 1990 I have based myself in the North of England.
I have maintained a practice as an artist and educator for around 40 years with a particular interest in forging artist-led initiatives and international exchange with fellow practitioners from around the world. I curated the first major survey of post-Velvet Revolution Slovakian artists in the UK in a collaboration with the Slovak Artists Union, from which a number of exchange residencies, symposia and exhibitions resulted. These involved artists from Austria, France, Germany, Holland, Italy, Slovakia and the UK. I have set up placements in Newcastle for international artists from Australia, China, India, Japan, Korea and Slovakia funded by a range of organisations including the British Council, Charles Wallace Foundation, Commonwealth Foundation, Newcastle University and Victoria Arts. Between 2006-14 I participated in a number of artists residencies in Australia, Japan, Korea and Norway the experience of which prompted new ways of thinking and making that influence my current work.
I trained as a painter and printmaker and for many years explored different ways to ‘model’ or visualise memory, forms of recollection and patterns of time. Initially these were in the form of large-scale (2 and 3 metre) built and ‘expanded’ paintings, and associated large-scale hybrid prints combining digital, intaglio and relief printmaking methods. Recently these interests have given way to an exploration of the notion of the ‘unmonumental’ in which small-scale, distillation, simplicity and the found-object each have a role to play. Currently I am making work in the form of small wall-based drawn or painted objects that seek to transform discarded material into small objects of presence. These speak to ideas of materiality, quietude, sustainability, transformation and the conditions of making.