I was slightly obsessed by drawing when I was young and in my teens discovered the work of Alan Lee who did concept work on the Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Hobbit?  Lee's illustrations in the book 'Faeries' (1978) Inspired me to look at using watercolours.  At fifteen, I spent every penny I had on my first Winsor & Newton tin paintbox and half-pan watercolours - around £15, which was a lot of money at the time.  I still have that lovely tin box to this day.

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I really enjoyed learning from Lee's work.  Then I stumbled over a wonderful book 'Janet Marsh's Nature Diary' (1979) and was awestruck by her incredible observation skills and delicate use of watercolour to paint the many creatures in the Itchen Valley.  Marsh's work informed my watercolour work greatly and I continued with watercolour through Foundation and then my Silversmithing & Jewellery course, for design work.  After a long gap of ten years while working in another industry, I came back to watercolour during my MA in Illustration.

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Watercolour can be a tricky medium which relies as much on what isn't painted as what is, the colour of the paper creating much of the light in the work.  I use a range of papers from rough, handmade Khadi paper to more refined hand made papers with a smoother finish.