about
“Bringing a smile to people’s faces has been the response
I most cherish from those who own a piece of my work.
Since Gladys Hat Fountain made her first public appearance
at Hampton Court Palace Flower Show thirty years ago.”
In the beginning …
For over 21 years we exhibited my work at RHS Flower Shows with our grand finale in 2014 at the the Chelsea Flower Show. We still get contacted by people who picked up a brochure from one of these show and are glad to receive an email or a call in reply. Over the years we have had the added pleasure of navigating lanes, roads and motorways across the country delivering, where possible, one of my pieces in person. This makes it feel like a ‘family affair’ especially when people visit us in Somerset to collect their orders.
Evolution …
Moving to Bristol in the eighties I had the first chance since college to work in clay again at the Bristol School of Art evening classes. This is where I slab built my first figures, MAVIS and GLADYS, fired with a stoneware glaze, their purpose being to contain flowers. Many others followed and this prompted my husband to organise a local gallery to exhibit them. Fortunately none were sold as they were far too expensive! In 1992 I took a ceramic MYRTLE to Norfolk for moulding and casting in bronze resin. While there I created a wax top with a fish to spurt water for the planter, and my first fountain was conceived. For the next 12 years we would drive up to Norfolk for regular collections of my cast sculptures.
Another Chelsea morning …
In 1994, at our first Chelsea Flower Show, an American visitor loved MYRTLE PLANTER and bought her for his Manhattan apartment, taking her back with him on his return flight. At that time this was unusual as all my work is cast to order with the process taking 4 - 6 weeks. Once you find a figure you would like to purchase you can navigate from the ‘How to Buy’ button to a page with more detailed information on the piece. The ‘Contact to Buy Me!’ button takes you to an email page where you can let us have details about your enquiry - it helps if you can also add a phone number and an idea of where you live.
Endlessly charming …
Since those first shows my husband David has been the major champion of my work, endlessly engaging with folks who would come to our stand. He often warned them that the girls were very sisterly and would pine for each other! Over the years many of my customers have become collectors, but they had been warned. All my work for the past years has been moulded and cast by him, alongside building walls, putting up shelters and constructing water features from planks of wood, pond liner and pumps at all the shows until our final Chelsea Flower Show in 2014. My job was to paint and plant the stand usually up to the wire.
Out of Africa …
From my art school days I have been greatly influenced by African Art first seen while drawing in the British Museum, as well as the work of Brancusi and Modigliani. ‘Form follows function’ was the motto of Walter Gropius and the Bauhaus movement, and my work too has a function, being a planter, fountain or simply a sculpture which makes people smile. My love for drawing began and continues with Life-Drawing classes as the human form is beautiful. Later as a silk-screen designers for a T-Shirt factory, laying out designs with scalpel and Pritt stick (cut and paste) of a line drawing and fonts - my appreciation of graphic design was rekindled. When we moved to Bristol in the early eighties I was able to use these skills in our marketing business, and later for the design of my brochures.
Into the future …
Moving on from old style layout to the digital world of Apple computers and Adobe software was a game changer, as in the design of my LOGO in the 1990’s leaving behind the challenge of drawing fine lines with a Rotring pen. During lockdown getting an iPad Pro and iPencil has taken my work to another level, and in 2021 as a result of a cancer diagnosis I recorded my journey as a journal in NOTES. This became the basis for my book - ODYSSEY: My Journey Back Home - with illustrations created in the Adobe App, Fresco. These self-portraits in my book remind me of silk-screen printing, with the use of flat vector colours and black outlines. So it seems I have come full circle.
AHA! …
It was also an AHA! moment too when I conceived and re-built my website which I had been planning for many years. As I enjoy a challenge the original plan was in learning to code, but following the advice of my original website designer I used SQUARESPACE, a web building site. This new site has the added advantage of an online shop where my ‘Mixed Media’ work can be purchased. From this site I can now showcase drawings, iPad illustrations, photography, and the books I have been working on. You can also view all my sculpture using the carousel feature. Currently I am working on a third website, adding another layer of design skill which I can offer to others. I hope you enjoy exploring all the pages.
