About me

I started my blog as an adjunct to my MA (Multi-Disciplinary Printmaking, UWE, Bristol). Intended to highlight my practice, it shows my principal preoccupations (along with all things print) to be: a journaler, walker and poet, photographer and gardener  and (not least) . . . jam maker.

My blog focus is on artists' books, exhibitions, bookbinding, letterpress and workshop assignments, also gardens and food, and walking through the landscape.

Fundamentally I'm a printmaker and book artist working predominantly in relief print and letterpress, running the Teacup Press from my studio in Wiltshire, from where I create limited edition books, prints and ephemera which are handprinted and hand-bound. Over time, books have become my major preoccupation; combining as they do my interests in printmaking, imagery, poetry and typography.

I make use of narrative poetry to form links between words and image; the books becoming the means of expression for simple narratives. It is important to me as an artist to have control over each element of production; being author, designer, printmaker and binder allows for continuity of practice and integrity of design.

As a keen gardener often my printmaking practice is inspired by plants and natural forms - from their colour and the detail of their structure to the visual impact they have on their surroundings. The garden, therefore, is one of my key subjects, but colour, structure and pattern in landscape influence me too.

I work a lot in my sketchbooks, making regular drawings of wherever I am, and I find sketching with a few portable materials feeds into a more considered and process driven work. In fact drawing underpins all my work, it is where the prints and books begin, in sketchbooks, and the processes I choose invariably allow me to incorporate drawing in some form or other.

Recently I have hosted workshops which are focused on printmaking without a press, and contemporary artists' book production. And currently I manage the Teacup Press at the Print Shed.

My work is held in a number of collections including the artists’ books collection of: Manchester Metropolitan University, the University of the Creative Arts and the Centre for Fine Print Research at UWE.

I have exhibited both locally and internationally, participating in exhibitions in the UK, Europe and the United States.