About

After studying graphic design, I worked for a printers in Clerkenwell, running an instant print shop, before becoming involved with the jewellery industry.So it was a small step to setting up my own marketing and graphic design business in 1995, specialising in the jewellery industry.In 2014, I met Talia LeHavi and returned to a passion from my youth – Chinese and Japanese art – inspired by a birthday card from an aunt and information from art school library books.The importance of space, the energy of each brush marks and the simplicity of the layout are very different to the values and culture of Western art. I took lessons from Talia (a former member of Skylark Gallery during her years in London) in Japanese calligraphy and ink painting and have remained in touch with her as she builds her own art school in Majorca.

During the Covid lock down, I recognised that the world would be a very different place and took the decision to close the business and concentrate on my ink painting practice.I moved out of my central London studio to Thames-side Studios and had begun to exhibit in local exhibitions, so it seemed like the right time to look for a gallery.Our framer mentioned Skylark Gallery to me and I became a member of the team in 2023.

I paint on Japanese or Chinese papers, much of it hand-made and some very fine I use traditional black Sumi and coloured mineral inks, applied with a brush.The final touch to each finished painting is my signature in Japanese script and two chop marks – one being a monogram of my initials and the other a blessing or symbolic description of the brush strokes or content.Each painting is float mounted and some are framed in natural ash wood