The gift I was given

For me, living in North Devon meant my childhood was an amazing gift of time playing at the beach, exploring and enjoying the many stunning coastal areas. Countless, endless hours spent wandering along the shore, scrambling over rocks, paddling, splashing, swimming, seeing life teeming in the rock pools, immersed in it and soaking it all up into my being.  

My love and need for this input is enduring, staying with me through good times and bad, through derailing trauma and struggles with hidden disabilities, as a way of life, a therapy for me, and an abundance of inspiration for my work.

 It’s a process of absorption. 

As I walk along the shorelines and clamber over the rocks, I take in the sounds. One day gently lapping water, the next crashing breakers. Sea birds are wheeling and crying overhead. I breathe the bracing sea air and sometimes fight against the raging wind. But I am not just drawn to the majesty of the scenery. 

For me the vast expanses and wild, breathtaking coastline marries with the minutiae of the seashore. Pebbles and found objects call out to me to pick them up and turn them over in my hands to ponder and I’m excited by their myriad lines, marks or holes. Cracked surfaces, sea worn driftwood, battered feathers, crumbling cliffs, weathered, rust-stained groynes; gentle beauty meets storm and wild weather.  Sadly now the brightly coloured detritus of modern consumerism also catches my eye, littering the sand, entangled with everything. 

Humanity and nature both leave their marks on the environment we inhabit.  Some are indelible, others transient and fleeting. Some are fragmented and broken. Some are enormous in scale, others almost invisible. 

There are so many detailed layers in the world around me and in everyone I meet, so my inspiration also encompasses people, places and experiences where I witness the same cycle of life, decay, death and renewal. Connections are abounding: the peeling paint and crumbling concrete of an old disused building, graffiti, rust.  The ‘perfect’, shiny and new losing the battle slowly as nature reclaims its place, with its truly perfect imperfection, all woven into the rich tapestry of our lives. 

My artwork is an intuitive outpouring of all these absorbed influences. Sometimes I’m moved to gentle concentration, a playful experimentation, or I am fired up with exuberant energetic gestures that come from a whole raft of extreme emotions.  I use paint, natural fabrics, sand and collage to add texture and layers that I carve into, scrape, or sand back to reveal colours and marks beneath, building up a history and a depth.  Some layers remain unseen, paralleling a hidden beauty or darkness. Each of the pieces evolves over time and emerges with its own life and its own story.