"Green Macaw" Painting

I am a Chester based UK artist, who has always had an interested in creating, even from an early age, art was my favourite subject in education. At seventeen, in 2005, I was fortunate to interview successfully for ‘Young Artists in Italy’ a programme where a group of the top Cheshire A-level art students spent a week in Florence taking part in creative workshops and going on tours seeing first-hand the works of the great Renaissance masters. This trip was so inspiring for a small group of young artists. I attended art College locally in Chester but after this tried to find a ‘normal’ career path in an office environment and I regrettably packed my paintbrushes away for over a decade. Lock down in 2020 gave me time to unpack and play with my old tools and surprisingly still usable paint! Since 2020 I have not looked back, I have genuinely enjoyed creating again; abstract pieces, still life, illustrations, and portraits of people but mostly pets! I work part time as an artist and know I am lucky to be able to do this and create for a living. I primarily work in watercolours, a medium often described as challenging. I am drawn to its unpredictability and delicacy, and I enjoy the juxtaposition of loose washes with refined detail - a contrast that is particularly evident in my portrait work. But depending what I am working on I also use ink, acrylic, oil, even colouring pencils, and crayons!