I inherited a precocious artistic talent from my great-grandfather, so by the time I was fourteen and a horse-mad teenager, I was accepting commissions for equestrian studies and selling paintings through local galleries. I trained in business management and graphic design, learning skills which have served me well through a career in commercial art, where I have been involved both in managing companies and in producing artwork. Starting off in advertising, I moved into fine-art publishing and gallery management, and then ran a design-for-print business in west London. My work has been published in a variety of forms - from biscuit wrappers to limited-edition fine-art prints, to magazine and book illustrations - and distributed all over the world. In the early 90s I started painting again for its own sake. Initialy this was just equestrian paintings, but I soon discovered an aptitude for portraiture, and gradually the making of equestrian art together with portraits of people and animals, has turned into a full-time career. Anatomical accuracy and attention to detail are important to me and characterise my style. I always strive to distil the spirit, the essence, of the subjects into my two-dimensional works, and I try to do this by weaving in the little characteristic things that bring a painting to life: the hair out of place; the slightest nuances of expression that reveal a personality, or tell the story of a lifetime . . . It is a great privilege to posses the ability to do this - even if only in a small, fairly crude way - and it is something I enjoy more than anything I have done previously. I prefer to use watercolour or pencil as my tools of translation, and it is these media that I feel most able to teach others to use. Most of my work is privately commissioned. I exhibit work regularly, often at high-profile venues, and I have won several awards in recent years. I am also a freelance illustrator, working mostly on children's educational books. I am a Full Member of both The Society of Equestrian Artists, and The Society of Women Artists.