Painter and landscape architect

I am an artist based in the Scottish Borders with a post graduate degree in Landscape Architecture. As the recipient of scholarships and awards to further my work, I have taken up residencies in Sri Lanka (Geoffrey Bawa Trust), Berlin (Edinburgh University Small Projects Grant) and Hungary (British Council Scholarship). I exhibit regularly with the Scottish Society of Botanical Artists, the Scottish Society of Artist Architects and I am a member of the Scottish Society of Artists. My work is concerned with land and plants, and how to create conversations open to all artists, ecologists and community groups. I am an enthusiastic educator and practitioner, and work both on site and in my studio. I am represented by The Dockside Gallery in Berwick-Upon-Tweed.

Paintings in oil on canvas

My recent work is of on the Lammermuir Hills: upland, remote and touching the sky. The series began in 2019 and continues to the present. I work both outside and in the studio where my work has become the result of a longer dialogue with my surroundings and is deeply reflective. One painting may take 2 years and the season vanishes, but the feeling of being there, deepens.

Flemish Landscapes 2010-2018

Living in a flat landscape has perceptual challenges that can be disorientating and require persistent analysis.

This body of work, on canvas, was founded in the practice of daily oil pastel sketches over 5 years, executed in small bound books. The culminating solo show, called 'The Four Seasons', took place in the panelled library of the Lakken Halle, a Heritage Building in the medieval city of Zoutleeuw, once used for weaving. The Four Seasons by Vivaldi accompanied this exhibition.

These paintings are in acrylic, they took less time to complete, stayed true to the seasons and was a more literal body of work.

Examples of daily oil sketch practice, over 3 years, from my studio in Belgium.

Botanical illustrations

I have been practicing this discipline since I graduated in 1993 and received a scholarship from The Geoffrey Bawa Trust to study in Brief Garden, Sri Lanka. My plant illustrations were self taught in an effort to identify the plants by careful observation. The illustrations formed the basis of a conservation plan of the 1.5 acre garden after its' creator, Bevis Bawa, died. Pen, ink and watercolour were my chosen mediums on hot pressed watercolour paper of archival quality.

I have continued to paint in botanical gardens in India, Belgium, Australia and the UK. Being self taught, I have developed a style of my own, which, although true to life, happily omits the stricter rules of Botanical Illustration.

I am fascinated by botanical artists who worked in 16th Century onwards. Many of these artists were intrepid women explorers, or unknown Indian and Chinese catalogue artists who worked for botanical gardens and shipping companies trading in plants for Kew Gardens.

In March 2025, I became a director of the Scottish Society of Botanical Artists, much to my surprise and delight.

Avocado

Lock down project - growing avocadoes from pips

Anemone 'wild swan'

Smeaton Nursery and Gallery, East Lothian

Iris siberica

My garden, Duns

Bauhinia

Brief Gareden, Sri Lanka

Eucapyptus

Australia

Iris germanica

My neighbours Garden, Duns

Rhodedendron

Smeaton Nursery, East Lothian

Some Sri Lankan plants, from the collection of illustrations, exhibited at Brief Gardens and in Colombo at Gallery 706, Barefoot. Now held in Brief Garden House and Museum and in the Geoffrey Bawa Trust.

There are some 250 plants found in the the garden. I painted each one for identification purposes and to add to the conservation plan.