Art has always been for me, a wonderful way of expressing emotion. The different moods and atmospheric qualities of light and colour project different emotions in a painting and the feeling of a painting often changes while it’s being worked on, as if the paint takes over, so the piece can become what it’s meant to be.

Although I studied Fine Art at Art College in Johannesburg, it is only in the last few years -
after about 25 years of illustrating children’s books - that I’ve realised how little we were taught and how very much there is still left to learn. The learning never stops. There are always new tools, techniques and media to be discovered.

I have always had the urge to “make art” with whatever materials came to hand, but my very favourite is oil paint. I love the translucency of oils, which can be applied in layers, changing, but not quite obscuring the colours beneath. The texture of the ground, or canvas adds an extra quality, which can be bared or hidden.

Most of my work is "loosely real", some of it almost heading towards - but not quite becoming - abstraction. I paint the feeling of my subject matter, rather than the actuality of it. The form created by colour, light and shade is what fascinates me, especially in portraiture, although those do need to look like the subject!

I have been infatuated with Koi fish for years and enjoy playing with their colourful forms in all sorts of styles and media. They have, for me, an almost meditative quality. I love the feeling of freedom in their graceful, underwater dance and the beautiful patterns they make with the reflections on the water......flowers too have their own dance, large and small, in all their wonderful forms, bright jewel colours and pastels, their stillness and motion, in light and shade.....painting myself happy!