After leaving school I attended Swansea Metropolitan University where I studied Illustration and Design, and that is where the painting first started, but after leaving Art College I pursued a career in retail. Having then left retail, after 25 years, I went back to Art College and studied more about the process and backgrounds on how other artists painted. This helped me to develop my work with more enthusiasm and energy. I have lived in Port Talbot all my life and everywhere you look there is always something there to inspire me to paint, hills and trees, the steelworks, old decaying parts of Port Talbot and its surroundings, and of course Aberafan Beach with the most amazing sunsets, inspiration everywhere, what town has all of these on their doorstep. Over the past few years my eyesight has deteriorated and am now ‘partially sighted’ and have learnt to adapt to it and in doing so I have grown more as an artist, producing my own work that inspires me, by experimenting to develop and improve the way I paint which made me more relaxed and content with how I produce a piece of work. Through observation I use different mediums to create different textures and form, also using deeper colours and strong light to enhance my work, as shown in several paintings depicting foliage, rocks and form to give the viewer a sense of being there in the moment, with me. I like to push and test myself when painting especially with subjects like clouds and flowing water that are always moving, changing shape and colour so quickly, which can be a challenge to capture and predict but exciting to paint, this is where I brushstrokes... the moment and everything else is non-existent except for the canvas, the paint the subject and my imagination, and of course, good music playing in the background to give me tempo and rhythm with my brushstrokes.