To see a world in a grain of sand
And Heaven in a wild flower
hold infinity in the palm of your hand
and Eternity in an hour.
William Blake
I like to make paintings which try to record my sensations before nature, to capture my love of the natural world, places and things of beauty that I love and sing to my soul. When I am painting I feel I am pouring my heart into my work and a deep gratefulness for our beautiful earth and natures endless cycles. I hope my work connects to others too.
I was born in Dorset and spent the first sixteen years of my life on an isolated trout and watercress farm. I have always felt my best being out of doors, and this began in my childhood where I loved the countryside, spending many solitary years observing wild flowers and nature, the weather, seasons and day dreaming. I loved Thomas Hardy's poetry and novels as a teenager, they seemed to chime with my way of life.
Drawing, painting and being creative have always been part of my life. I always liked pictures, on cigarette cards and greeting cards, postcards and stamps and I first recall art really connecting with me and having an effect when I saw Picasso's The Weeping Woman at Tate Britain aged ten. It seemed to explain so much and really was pivotal in my interest in fine art.
I read History of Art and English Literature at Edinburgh University. Being in Scotland I spent a lot of time camping, walking and climbing in the mountains and sketched and wrote for my pleasure. I experienced the loss of my Dad, my cousin Lucie, and a dear friend in close succession in my late teens, early twenties and this had a profound effect on me. I found being out of doors in the natural world, feeling free and connected to our earth my solace.
Sailing wooden boats is part of my family history. My experiences of sailing, seamanship and appreciating wooden boats came from the wonderful times I spent with my grandparents sailing on their wooden boat around the Solent, West Country, Scotland and France as well as sailing with my Dad. My grandfather, a passionate wooden boat enthusiast, used to paint his favourite boats in oils when he wasn't sailing and this influenced me too. Boats continued into my adult hood, racing dinghies and classics, crewing on yacht deliveries and sailing with my own family with my children. My first partner and I started a wooden boat building business in 2004, Butlers Wooden Boats and built our own wooden boat, a 50 ft gaff yawl on which we lived and sailed, chasing a dream.
I have 4 amazing daughters, Lily, Skye, Frances and Heather. Becoming a mother focussed my attention towards everything that was important to me, highlighted all the joys in the present moment and believing and empowering my children has somehow taught me so much too. Since sailing into Cornwall in 2012 I have found my home here and lived unconventionally on a wooden lugger on the river for nearly ten years. Arriving by the water and sailing up the Helford River on an October evening was unforgettable; the quiet, the stillness ,the curlews. I find the magical places and energy of Cornwall enchanting, lost in another time, particularly in autumn and winter and I try to capture this in my paintings. I feel like life for me is a creative act, a way of seeing and observing the world around me and during the time when I have not been physically painting my mind has been constantly gathering paintings in my head. Always looking out for inspiration, little moments of beauty, light and feelings. I like to believe in dreams and that anything is possible.
The process of painting is like sailing somehow, the freedom, the constant movement, the meditative concentration, trying to capture the passing of time, a moment of beauty, the ever receding horizon. In the act of painting I am myself where I have no self-doubt, anxiety or judgement. In my painting I try to capture things and places I find beautiful and I love, capturing feelings of love and loss and gratefulness.
I currently live in a cottage on the Lizard Peninsula, not far from the river and sea. With my children growing up and more physical time and space and calmer waters I am dedicating my energy into my art. I started painting with oils in 2004 when I had a studio and gallery in Whitstable Kent. I am largely self taught. My last solo exhibition was in 2014 Falmouth and am looking forward to exhibiting my art once again. If I am not painting I am working as a gardener, or walking the lanes and footpaths, swimming in the sea. Everyday, even if its just the school run, my day is marked by the weather and light, the changing seasons, a jug of flowers from my garden and hedgerows on the table, the tide and the moon, and nature never fails to amaze and over whelm me.
