Paintings of mermaids angels and flowers ......

I love to paint....My mum said she knew I would be an artist when I drew a huge spider on the wall when I was tiny. I remember I used to draw inside books as well...you know the white page at the beginning  and end. My auntie said she would turn the bookcase to face the wall when I visited.... I can't remember that.

I studied art and my tutor said I would have made a good fine artist...he was quite upset when I chose to study textiles.

 I have always been torn between painting and sewing. I love design...I love to print fabric....I enjoy colours...I like to use my imagination.

 It is much the same if I embroider...I make it up as I go along. My mother likes cross stitch and needlepoint, she prefers to follow a chart. I very seldom follow a knitting pattern, on the rare times I have...I will knit it in a fair isle design and make that up as I go along.

 I have never followed a crochet pattern...I was taught how to do a granny square , the basic stitches and from then on somehow just knew how to make what ever I thought of.

I am showing you a few paintings that I have sold.....In fact I did them as simple designs, mostly to sell on eBay. I knew I would not get a lot for them so they are not great works of art, I just enjoyed doing them.

 I have produced many paintings that I am proud of...they have been given away to family and friends. There is far to much competition, too many artists so I have decided to combine what I love to do with what I know I do best.....

The other paintings are on canvas, where as this one was on a large piece of mdf ...I did a few on mdf that I had cut for me...I liked the feel of painting on it. This photo was taken in the shop I had. Actually...I like to paint on walls....huge designs instead of wall paper or hanging pictures.

The owl and the pussycat ........

This is a painting I did some years ago....a rather large painting that I did on fabric....I had it stretched onto a frame and sold it as soon as it was hung in the shop...       

This is the painting in the shop.....

My parents owned the shop which was situated very near the sea front in Eastbourne....I rented it from them and made every thing that I sold myself. I had a work area behind the counter where I painted and prepared my sewing. I did the sewing itself after the shop was closed or when my dad gave me a break.

In the summer I opened the shop seven days a week, starting at 9 am and closing sometimes as late as 10 pm..holiday makers often had a walk out in the evening. The situation was good as we were near the theatres and some good restaurants where people would take a stroll before returning to their hotel..

I worked in the shop until a week before I had Charlie....He was over a week late and an enormous baby, just under 10 lb... I walked about 20 Min's to the shop and back each day...huge and round. I bought a man's t-shirt for the last two weeks of my pregnancy...it was orange and cheap in a sale, the only thing that would fit me....I think I must have looked like an orange with legs. I returned to work in the shop a week after I had him.