I live and work in Hampshire from a small studio in the garden. When my career as a successful ceramic restorer reached a climax I made a welcome return to full time painting, completing a period of study with The Open College of the Arts to refresh my techniques. My contemporary landscape paintings are reflective, impressions of places I know well or have visited, an expressive response to a situation, or a fleeting moment captured. . Working in oils, or acrylic mixed media my paintings create visual echoes of my reactions after close contact with the environment. I aspire to capture an essence of place, how it seemed at that moment and create that atmosphere in paint on canvas in the studio. I use a spontaneous impasto technique that builds colour and textured marks into contrasting quiet and vigorous passages, creating both visual and tactile interest . Much though, study, sketching, and note taking on site goes into the process of planning a painting, before I make the first make the critical first mark on the blank canvas in the studio. I relish the seasonal moods and changes of the landscape.,and create my paintings in tune with the seasons.