About me & my work

 

My printmaking journey began with some simple lino printing in secondary school. I went on to study at Hereford College of Art before then completing a BA (Hons) in Surface Pattern Design at Staffordshire University.

 

It wasn't until returning to the UK in 2016 after a decade in the Middle East where I worked in the interior design industry and also as an art teacher, that I set up my own home print studio in North Yorkshire with my trusty studio assistant Amber. 

 

My work explores the powerful spiritual resonance of historical sacred buildings and their setting in the landscape. I love combining the representational imagery of soaring monumental structures of ancient abbeys and churches with the intricate and complex patterns and rhythms of their decorative features. 

 

I'm a distant ancestor of Walter Espec, the 12th century founder of Kirkham and Rievaulx Abbeys, so I feel that I have a deep sense of connection with my subject matter. 

 

Using etching and collagraph printmaking techniques and a colourful palette, I seek to bring to life the powerful geometry of the often faded motifs and time-worn patterns and symbols of historic artefacts found in the masonry and ancient tiles of these sacred sites. My final prints explore and record the dynamic rhythms of three-dimensional architectural form,  layered with their decorative and symbolic adornment in a graphic expression of awe and wonder.