Having completed a foundation course and two years of a fine art degree at Bower Ashton by 1988, I left to have my fourth son as a single parent. After training and working as a community photographer, then doing support work for several years in an education and community setting I became severely ill with M.E.

Although a difficult and isolating experience, living with M.E. gave me a chance to realise what is of real importance to me and became, in many ways, a very positive experience. Becoming a member of a theraputic art community, Studio Upstairs, was a turning point and, after many years of not painting, I began to reclaim my energy by using acrylic, collage, sand, plaster....whatever I could find....to create layered and textured images during my continuing journey of recovery.

Now an artist at Mivart Studios, my work is often influenced by my surroundings – city landscapes and, increasingly, seascapes and other landscapes as I have become able to get out of Bristol. I work using the colours, shapes and textures that I remember, combined with and influenced by my feelings for that place and my emotions of the time.

Expressing myself through art has become an essential part of keeping myself healthy and just a little bit sane. I need to paint.