Botticelli, Piero de la Francesca, Degas, Constable, Van Gogh, Bonnard and William Scott were the greatest influences on my early years at school and art foundation in Chester. Plus the encouragement of art teachers, never to be forgotten.

The Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool was the closest and best gallery to visit, and I was lucky enough to have had a drawing exhibited there when I won a prize in a national schools art competition.

So, art was the inevitable path, with two older sisters forging the way ahead. Leaving school at 16, completing a two year art foundation course and straight to my first choice, Bower Ashton, Bristol Polytechnic, where William Scott and Patrick Heron were visiting tutors. A lowly 3rd Degree did not stand me in good stead and work beckoned.

Forty-plus years on, some fascinating work, twenty of them as a gallerist, and I am now in my second year as a full-time artist, not curating or exhibiting work by other artists, but just getting to grips with the process of painting. 

Last year I was delighted to be invited by GOGallery in Stourbridge to take part in a mixed exhibition 'Glimpsing the Land' based on the documentary by Mark Cousins about Wilhelmina Barns-Graham, and later in September I exhibited at Wildegoose Nursery in the Walled Garden at Lower Millichope, Munslow in Shropshire, with Jack and Laura Willgoss who have created a wonderful nursery, inspired by the new perennial movement of Northern Europe. They plant and grow sustainably, not watering the mature plants and adjusting to climate change. It is here that I hold Sketch with Mary days.

The exhibition at Wildegoose Nursery was wonderful. Sharon Griffin and Glen Farrelly both showed their sculpture throughout the garden, and lots of old gallery customers and artists visited and purchased work. 

This year, 2026, I am showing new work with my sister Susan Wadsworth and Amy Martin, who are both artists, at Dulwich Festival Artists' Open House, on the first weekend, Saturday 9th and Sunday 10th May. We will be exhibiting in my sister's house on Court Lane, Dulwich - Venue No31.

I do hope you can come!