|  I
was born in 1960. From a very early age I was a Fairy, and I used to dress
up in Fairy clothes and wait for people to notice how wonderful I was.
At Primary School, some very unkind girls told me that everyone born in
1959 and 1961 were the real fairies, and all other years were not. If,
however, they said, I went to talk to the Fairy Queen who lived behind
one of the pre fabricated games huts at school, in a tree, and asked her
to make me a fairy, I may get my year of birth changed. For a whole term’s
worth of lunch breaks, I stood talking to a tree hoping to be heard by
Esmerelda who was, I was told, the Fairy Queen. I was 7. As far as I was
concerned, I had to do this because I was a real fairy, and there had
been a terrible mistake.
Around this time my father showed me a painting that changed my life.
It was the Dead Christ Supported by Mary by Giovanni Bellini. It was intense,
raw, powerful and deeply shocking. I had never seen anything like it,
and I connected to the power and passion in that painting and felt such
a surge of inspiration, that I determined that I too was going to be a
painter when I grew up. This is still one of my most favourite of paintings.
I studied for a Master’s degree in Art History. I chose to write
my dissertation on the religious frescoes of the Italian artist Pietro
Annigonni; his powerful and dramatic work affected me the same way as
the Bellini Deposition. I was privileged to have his help and guidance
and consider him a very great and kind man.
I work from my studio in my garden in Bognor Regis by the Sea. My wonderful
children are grown and I am happy to be following my star as an Artist.
It is all I have ever wanted to be and do. I write and paint and drink
a lot of tea, and am constantly inspired by the people I meet and the
paintings I do for them. All in all, it is not a bad life.
|
