My studio by the sea is my happy place

...although for many years I balanced my creative life with Government administrative and retail work. I never stopped making, but my art often had to fit around everything else. Three years ago, I moved to Filey, and that decision changed something in me. Living beside the sea has given me the freedom to finally follow my heart and make space for the artist I have always been.

I work across mixed media, print, paint, collage and, more recently stained glass and ceramics. I enjoy exploring different materials and allowing marks, textures and layers to develop intuitively. I am particularly drawn to the edges of the land — the coast where earth meets the sea. There is something deeply powerful about these places. They are constantly changing through tide, weather, light and erosion, yet they also carry a sense of ancientness, memory and story.

When I am working, I can lose myself completely in the process, absorbing the materials, the landscape and my own thoughts. Time seems to disappear. I am not always consciously thinking about where an idea comes from; sometimes it simply emerges through making.
For me, making art is a way of paying attention. It is a way of honouring the land, its stories and my own memories of learning from nature. My grandad gave me that first connection, and the coast has deepened it. I feel that I have finally come home to my creativity.