I originally graduated from Central St Martin’s School of Art with a BA in ceramics and later took up printmaking, exhibiting as a member of the 4PRINTmakers collective in East Anglia.
Some of my earliest memories though are of trying to make my own picture books so it was not surprising that eventually I ended up on the MA in Children’s book illustration at Cambridge School of Art.
I have always loved illustration and it’s ability to transport us on magic carpets to other worlds but am also inspired by the mid century school of British artists and designers; and folk art, particularly Eastern European and American, as well as our own traditional arts and culture.
One of my favourite illustrators is Barbara Cooney and I take my creative motto from her Miss Rumphius who said that we should all ‘do something to make the world more beautiful’. I come from a family of makers, artists and crafts people and my creativity has taken many and varied forms over the years but I believe that none, however humble, has been less valid than another. They are all just the different patches of the creative quilt of my life and I hope that some of them may spread a little joy to others.