About Me

Art and snails

I live in the beautiful Garden of England county of Kent in the UK, within the High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in the historic spa town of Royal Tunbridge Wells . I have always loved animals and have drawn them for as long as I can remember since a young child, with a special affinity for snails! I have collected ornaments over the years, had a variety of pet snails from giant African to aquatic snails and I have written, illustrated and had published a children's book called A Snail's Tale.

I left school after my A Levels and went on to art college to study art and design, gaining a BTEC diploma in Foundation Studies. I then went on to university and gained a BA Hons in Graphic Design - Illustration. That is where my life took a turn away from art as a career and I have since spent my years as a planning officer working for local government. Art has taken a back seat and I have only dabbled intermittently.

A new direction

In autumn 2013 I began a five-year planning officer career break. During this time, I took the opportunity to complete a lifelong ambition and had my children's book A Snail’s Tale published. It had begun life as a university project and was something I had always intended to pursue, but never got around to it. After rewriting the text and redrawing the illustrations, it was finally published in August 2017. It was an immense feeling of gratitude I experienced when I saw the book in print for the first time.

The book is available to buy on Amazon and Kindle . There is a wonderfully narrated version on Amazon Audible. All these are available on my Shop page with the added bonus that on request, I can do you a signed copy. Just send me a message on my contact form.

I know what I want to do...finally!

I resumed my planning officer career in 2018. I was saddened when in October 2019 I lost my beloved cat Ernie. After 13 wonderful years together, I wanted to remember him with a portrait. This reignited a fire within me for drawing animals. I find art a very therapeutic process, which has set me on a course of wanting to resume my pet portraits on a more regular basis.

Please take a look at my gallery for some of the past and present animals I have drawn. I have either photographed them myself or I have worked from other people's photographs. I enjoy meeting all kinds of different animals, and the owners too of course! I am happy at any opportunity to get out and about and meet the subjects of my drawings. If you are not too far from me, I am willing to come and see you to photograph your animals in person.