Artist’s Statement
After an idyllic rural childhood, an addiction to 6 weeks of freedom every summer finally led to my graduating from Warwick University with a B.Ed degree. I taught fine art before moving to Devon where I joined a woodcarving group and found an affinity for working with wood. My early training continued at Dartington Hall summer schools with Willi Soukop RA. whose charismatic tutorship guided my development over the next few years and still remains the touchstone of my work.
In 1990 I became a self-employed woodcarver selling mainly from my waterfront workshop in Salcombe. I later moved to Ashburton and became involved with Devon Open Studios. I now live on the Dart estuary and work from home.
As a sculptorI love the feel, smell and character of individual woods. I carve whatever the wood wants to be, working almost entirely without sketches or models using the natural shape and grain or burr as my inspiration. Each sculpture is so unique to that particular piece of wood that I know it can never be replicated – even by me. Every carving is a new adventure and I am often surprised myself at what ‘crawls out of the woodwork’!
