I was born and grew up in Surrey. As a child I lived very much in my own world - colour and pattern always excited and interested me. Later, when I had the opportunity to move from London to rural Wales with my partner and live on a small farm, I had, at last, the time and the space to roam on the open land and explore more deeply a sense of colour, the importance of pattern and symbol - I realised that everything is connected, nothing is in isolation.

Although I had been painting and exhibiting in London, I made the decision to join the Yr Ysgol School of Art. These were exciting times and for the following four years I studied weaving, textiles, life drawing and painting, under Mary Lloyd Jones, an internationally renowned artist and profound influence. I became a member of a liberating group of artists, sometimes working with a cutting edge theatre group, experimenting with media and music, exhibiting in Wales and further afield. After my two children were born I decided to do a Montessori teacher training and worked in an innovative school in Cardigan. Moving to Devon in 1984, I set up my own Montessori based school with an emphasis on creativity, development of individual potentiality and artistic expression.

I became interested in the interaction of music, dance and painting, took a teacher training in dance and worked with groups of both children and adults exploring inner creativity expressed through movement and 'marks on the page'. During this period I continued to paint and exhibit widely both individually and as a member of an all-women artist group called 'Boarding Card'. I have had periods of living abroad and whilst in India my love for colour was completely embraced; vivid colours placed next to each other, something I had always done myself, now seemed to make more sense when they were visible in the landscape, in textiles, in a flash of women's clothing.

In 1993 I lived for a year in New Mexico, USA, exploring an expansive semi-arid desert landscape, meeting with Native American families and artists, particularly at Laguna and at Hopi in Arizona. Their sense of place, the apparent simplicity of their culture, the layers of meaning, the symbols on a clay pot or rock-face that reach back into antiquity - these understandings are reflected in my painting - the space between things, of pattern, time, colour and the sense of a continuum.

In Kashmir I encountered the beauty of the ancient Moghul gardens, the concept of an entry point leading to layer upon layer of beauty, up to the mountains beyond, of creativity becoming unified with the landscape. This sense of layering colour, experience and light, has become the primary influence on my work in the last ten years and has also influenced the design of the barns and gardens where I now live in Devon. I decided to create my own garden, a peaceful haven where harmony can exist and things can reach their full potential. I am ever delighted by the fact that I am part of it all.

The influence of the environment, the sense of place, of order, the continuum, of light and colour combinations, whether in Devon, Italy, France, or wherever I am, impacts on my creativity and the exhibitions of my work that evolve from these experiences.