Both my parents were insistent that my brother and I went out into the countryside most weekends. Many a Sunday we could be found sitting in the corner of a field breakfasting on hard boiled eggs and sipping flask flavoured tea amid early morning dew or beneath a sky laden with rain clouds, the weather was irrelevant, an early start to the day was essential for a full day of tramping through the greenery equipped with an assortment of field guides and binoculars.

As children we thought this was what all families did at the weekend. The discovery that this was not ‘normal’ came in our late teens and although we rebelled the damage had already been done. I was smitten for life with an eye constantly alert to the natural world around me.

I am grateful now; everyday life is strung with ‘sparks’ of joy. A small plump Wren in the undergrowth, the intricate binding of a leaf with silk to create a cocoon, a tight clutch of plover eggs nearly crushed underfoot or a seal caught in the liquid green of a falling wave.

My work does not attempt to capture the correct anatomical structure or photographic likeness of an animal but more the character and the essence of the creature and the way in which it lives within its own particular element. I also reflect my experiences of life through the portrayal of the natural world. A Skylark singing fit to burst seeks to express a joy of individuality, A Heron chick in all its primeval ugliness indicates that all is not as it seems in one lifetime.