The Return
I am known for my delicately detailed hand burnished relief prints of trees.
I was a creative child but unable to study art at school beyond the age of 14. I was also interested in people so I studied Social Admin BSc at Bristol University and completed a post graduate qualification in careers guidance, in which feild I worked for 17 years.
I kept returning to art however and in my mid thirties I graduated with an HNC in Photography from Newcastle College, and took a leap of faith into full time professional photography.
I specialised in natural weddings and portraits for the following 20 years led by the beauty of natural light and my instinctive response to spontaneous and natural compositions. I often photographed trees too! I had my favourites.
In 2015 I followed my long held fascination with traditional printmaking and was introduced by Chris Daunt to wood engraving.
I felt a strong sense of coming home and as a result, I volunteered every Thursday for a number of years in the press room at Cherryburn the National Trust Birthplace Museum of Thomas Bewick the world renowned wood engraver and naturalist, and there learned traditional printmaking techniques from Paul Goldsmith.
I was able to demonstrate wood engraving and printmaking to visitors and appeared on both Flog It, and Further Tales from Northumberland with Robson Green on their visits to Cherryburn.
The roots of my life came together in 2017 when I discovered the work of Bryan Nash Gill and his Wood prints.
By burning the wood to create a raised relief printable surface, I am able to create the visual art which I feel so connected to.
“Its natural, beautiful, and reveals in visual form the mystery and love I have for trees. It may seem strange but I feel I am printing for them”
In 2018 I was on BBC Countryfile creating a wood print and in August 2019 after my solo exhibition in Grizedale I opened my studio here in the forest.
I accept Tree pieces which arrive at my studio from visitors who love and who may have lost particular trees they have been close to. In exchange I give them the first print from its surface.
My studio door is always open when I am here printing and I am happy to share my process, and my favourite wood pieces, so many with their own story to tell.
