My artistic journey has taken many twists and turns: roundabouts, diversions, mountains and valleys, a splattering of off-roading, and a couple of gigantic potholes. Yes, I went to college, but if I’m completely honest, I was only there in spirit. After a year or two in an advertising agency—where I actually learned Apple and Adobe software—I moved to Garnet Publishing in Reading, UK. That's where my illustration career truly began.

As a self-taught illustrator, I have grown and refined my techniques over the years, moving from hand-drawn artwork in pencil, ink, and watercolour to vector and raster illustrations created in Procreate, Photoshop, and Illustrator.

Some years ago, I also discovered a love of fine art, and a whole new creative world opened up to me. Painting for myself—with no artwork brief—was challenging at first, but once I found my voice in that world, it took flight.

And then there are the pet portraits. Yep, that's just how my brain works. Trying to pigeonhole myself into one thing never worked, and I have finally accepted that everything I create influences everything else. Actually, I love the variety.

Behind all of this is my experience as a graphic designer. That's been a constant throughout my career, and it has served me well. Being able to illustrate books, design them, and prepare them for print has allowed me to offer authors a complete package over the years.

I lived in the US for 22 years before recently returning home to the UK and starting a whole new chapter (which I should probably illustrate). I am currently relearning where to add the extra r's into words and trying to remember to talk about the weather in Celsius rather than Fahrenheit. And don't get me started on converting inches to centimetres!

I work from my studio at Botany Bay Nurseries in Astwood Bank, Redditch, alongside my sidekick, Maeve the Chihuahua.