‘Towards Kilnsea’ – acrylic paint on canvas (30 x 22 cm)

Welcome to my website. I’m an artist and writer living on the East Yorkshire coast. I paint using batik wax resist techniques, acrylics on board or canvas, and sometimes oils. I also enjoy textile crafts.

In childhood I spent winter afternoons around the dining table with my sisters, while my Dad (an amateur watercolourist) taught us how to mix colours, lay down a watercolour wash and about perspective. As a teenager I followed step-by-step tuition in a library book to make my first simple batik in three colours. Batik then became my chosen medium for many years.

More recently I’ve been experimenting with acrylic paint and discovering its versatility.

‘Winter Beach’ – acrylic on canvas (30 x 23 cm)

The East Yorkshire coast and Humber region is studded with reminders of the onslaught of war and sea. Anti-tank blocks, gun batteries, artillery stores, lighthouses etc – grim remnants of the past can appear strangely beautiful now they’ve become weathered by wind and water. As vertical structures, rare in a landscape that is mostly horizontal and close to sea level, they sometimes form the subject of my paintings.

‘Sunrise over the Listening Dish (Sound Mirror)’ – acrylic on board (14 x 14 cm)

‘Anti-tank blocks, Easington Beach’ – batik on cotton (34 x 42 cm)

‘Morning Sun over Easington Beach’ – batik on cotton (47 x 45 cm)

‘Gateway’ (Eroding Godwin Artillery Battery, Kilnsea) – batik on cotton (42 x 34 cm)

‘Looking inland (north) from Spurn Point’ – acrylic on board (30 x 23 cm)

But it’s light that inspires me the most – that certain quality of light that adds drama to a scene, whether it be a fantastic sunrise or sunset, or the deep violet shadows seen in spring and autumn, as in my batik below:

‘The Fragile Beauty of Eroding Sea Cliffs’ – batik on cotton