biography

After I finished my secondary school education in Rüsselsheim, Germany, I trained as a nursery teacher by of employment by the council’s children services working in different ‘Kindergarten’ institutions (1981-90). I left this position to study for my A-level equivalent and after completing this enrolled to study sociology at Fachhochschule Wiesbaden, Germany. During my studies I continued working for the council’s children service on a part time base as a teaching assistant in a primary school with socially challenging cultural issues due to high immigration.

 

I moved to London in 1992 to enrol in the fine art foundation course at Camberwell College.

 

Since graduating in Fine Art Printmaking BA (hons), at University of Brighton in 1996, I have been living and working with my family in the UK, Germany, Switzerland, France and the US as a Fine Art Printmaker and watercolour artist, with Brighton, UK, as the premier location and home. During my BA course I worked with etching and large scale off-set plate lithography. The prints in my degree show were a combination of both techniques.

 

After graduating (1996-98) I was a member of North Star Studios, Brighton. Here I worked in the medium of plate lithography.

 

In 2001 I joined the Open Access Fine Art Print workshop ‘Brighton Independent Printmaking’ working in funding and research, general workshop assistance and as company secretary (2005-2008). Here I also taught zinc plate lithography classes.

 

At the same time I developed my own work in the medium of traditional etching, beginning to create large irregular shaped plates. The images could be described as semi-abstract imaginative ‘worlds’.

Since then etching has always been my medium of choice. The process and the materials inspire the way I develop my imagery. I start with a loose idea for an image, clarifying it through drawing. But the real development starts with working on the plate, pushing the initial idea through to a conclusion. The resulting imagery is never a representation of the circumstance or object that inspired it, but an improvisation of my initial idea, becoming ‘a world in it’s own right’. With my imagery I aim to inspire an observer’s own imagination to find their own individual ‘picture’.

 

In 2009 I set up Studio B5 with Jo Riddell, Richard Denne, Margaret Betts and Jane Sampson, all fine art printmakers, printing in different mediums. Here I developed my own way of using the alternative technique of Acrylic Resist Etching, which is now in use by the studio. I also run weekend courses in this technique throughout the year.

 

My work is available to buy through the IO Gallery in Brighton, The Junction Art Gallery, Woodstock Oxford, Atelier Rose & Grey in Ramsbottom, the Rheged Centre, Penrith, and Rye Art Gallery.

 

For the last 10 years I have exhibited in the annual Brighton Festival Open House exhibitions and also various art fairs mainly London’s Affordable Art Fair and Brighton Art Fair.

 

My etchings have been shown in group exhibitions for example in “One day my Prints will come” (Rye Art Gallery, Rye 2011). The Cuckoo Cuckoo Gallery in Hastings exhibited my work in May 2013 through to April 2014.

 

In 2015 I exhibited my work at Printfest in Ulverston, and the Great Print Exhibition in Penrith, and recent exhibitions have included Ravenswood at Brighton Open Houses, and West Dean Art Fair in West Sussex.