About the artist
I grew up in family who loved painting and drawing. My mum was a keen illustrator of children’s books and as a small child I loved watching her turn the ‘nothing’ on a blank sheet of paper into an amazing picture. It was like alchemy and it inspired myself, my late sister and my brother to draw and paint. We grew up in the beautiful Suffolk countryside and I was inspired especially by the long distance views across fields and trees.
Most of all, I loved the late afternoon and evening skies. At boarding school, I became gripped by a compulsion to paint sunsets. That became something of a classroom joke, for which my many efforts dotted about the place earned the nickname ‘Syfretian’ sunsets.
Later in my mid-teens, I had an inspirational art teacher, Graham Drew. Whenever I had a spare moment, I would be in the art room, soaking up his patient tuition, wisdom and encouragement. It was a place where I felt safe and ‘at home’, and could forget everyday pressures.
Graham encouraged me to think of a career as an artist, but my parents wanted me to follow a more traditional path, which they believed would stand me in better stead for the future. So, off to university and then to London, where in my 20s I met another inspirational artist and teacher, Stuart Knowles, still one of my closest friends to this day, during evening classes at the Camden Art School. And later on, I learned much from Cecil Collins, a well-known artist from the mid Thirties.
Now that I have retired, I have more freedom to paint and to experiment with different techniques.
As well as nature scenes, I love capturing urban environments, including street art, which I admire for its ephemeral and intimate qualities. The media I use mainly comprise oils, watercolours, pastels and charcoal sticks/crayons. Whatever the subject, my constant challenge is to do justice to the compelling and mysterious beauty around us – the atmosphere and figurative/abstract qualities of what we see. My delight is in sharing it with you.
