I began painting as a child, inventing comics, pretend photos and imaginary maps. At 18 I went on to study at Hornsey School of Art. Over the years I have held a variety of jobs but have always continued with my secret love of painting: filling a series of ‘scribble books’ with bright, multimedia pieces. Following retirement I started entering and winning various national and other open art competitions finally becoming a member of the Royal Watercolour Society. Each of my paintings is like a little journey. Images emerge from my subconscious based on emotional memory, imagination, pattern and observation. My compositions assemble themselves over time as elements arise, or get painted over while I try to balance the needs of the painting’s surface. I use whatever medium will give me the effect I wish to evoke: watercolour, gouache, acrylic, oils, pencil, pastel, scraper board or Lino cut. Collage is a favourite of mine - outlines of thick board emerging below the surface distractions of colour or shape. I play with odd, out-of-the-way observations. These images then sometimes act as a trigger or just find their way into my paintings. Eventually things seem to arrange themselves around that centre where opposites meet - the natural meets the man-made, the mundane meets the celestial, the near meets the far. The hopeless meets the hopeful.