Painter of Flowers and Country Life
"I hail the goddess for her scarlet flower:
Thou brilliant weed,
That dost so far exceed
The richest gifts gay Flora can bestow."
I'm a painter based in Hadleigh, Suffolk, who paints flowers plein air and in the studio. I occasionally paint dogs by commission also, as well as landscape and people. Having studied Art at A' level and experimented with pastel in the aftermath, I undertook an Oil Painting Diploma at the Norfolk Painting School, graduating in 2021. It was here that I studied the Old Masters in depth and found new ways to express myself in paint. Excited by my initial experiments with colour and pattern, I turned to flowers as my genre of choice.
Teaching
I offer one-to-one and small group tuition at my studio in Hadleigh. If you'd like to come and paint some flowers with me or enjoy some tuition in your own garden, please drop me a line ... and click here for Workshops.
Previous exhibitions:
Ipswich Art Society
Colchester Art Society
Institute of East Anglian Art, Holt, Norfolk
The Gallery Holt, Norfolk
The Leaping Hare, Wyken, nr Bury St Edmunds
Heart of Suffolk, Thorpe Morieux
Pond Gallery, Snape Maltings
The Old Goods Shed, Clare
Grundisburgh House, nr Woodbridge
Hadleigh Old School - 'Inspired by Benton End'
Upcoming exhibitions
Suffolk Open Studios - 21/22 June 2025
Makers Gallery Holt - 1-7 October 2025
Inspired by Benton End 2025
In Autumn 2024 myself and seven other Suffolk artists began visiting the house and gardens of Benton End, Hadleigh - the place that was formerly the home of Cedric Morris and Arthur Lett-Haines and known as the East Anglian School of painting and Drawing. Calling ourselves the 'Inspired by Benton End Artists', we were the first group of professional creatives in forty years to be given independent access to the house to paint, research and collaborate - and on the 12th and 13th April this year our works, from paintings and ceramics to sketchbooks and journals, went on show at Hadleigh Old School.
Of all the old masters, I can think of few who mastered the art of flower-painting as successfully as Cedric and so, as a flower painter myself, I feel truly blessed to have the legacy of Benton End here in Hadleigh. The idea of the artist/plantsman is also the dream for me. In the Summer months I divide my time between painting and gardening and, as well as tending to my own small garden, assist others in theirs. I prefer working from life over photographs and, now that my confidence as a plein air painter has grown, relish drawing inspiration from other people's gardens and capturing my impressions on large panels prior to polishing them off back at home.