I was born in 1959 in Nairobi, Kenya, a country my dad’s family have lived in since the early 1900s. We emigrated to the UK in 1966, settling in Edinburgh. I went to school here, ending up at the Art College, doing Drawing and Painting from 1977 to 1981.
After working for a few years, first at Thins bookshop and then at the newly re-furbished Fruitmarket Gallery, I was made redundant in 1989. Luckily I qualified for the Enterprise Allowance scheme which I did as a Printmaker, becoming officially professional in 1990.
I draw anything that strikes me as beautiful. As an etcher I am particularly drawn to the linear around me, I love the tracery of winter branches against a clear sky, the shape of things against a bright window, or the contrast of textures. But it is light especially, that moves me, the way shadows and highlights mark an image; the way sunlight is captured.
Though largely known these days for images of my home city of Edinburgh, I have done many pictures of plants, flowers and landscape. It is lovely to be invited to this gallery and to be given the opportunity to show some of these other works of mine.
