Have you always lived in Barnes?
I first lived in Barnes in 1977 while a student at Froebel College in Roehampton, studying art and education. On graduating I travelled in the Middle and Far East, returning to Barnes in 1983 and settling here in 1987. My father’s family are from the Isle of Mull so I spend much of my time there too.

Where has your artistic journey led you?
Since I can remember I have painted, drawn and sewn. While working, I took evening life classes at Chelsea College of Art and continued taking day, evening or weekend classes in a variety of disciplines, whenever time allowed, while bringing up my family.

All this while my primary interest was portraiture. Drawing led to 3D portrait and figurative sculptures, culminating in commissioned fired clay and bronze portraits and a bronze angel patinated to look like granite for my mother's gravestone.

I had a brief flirtation with glass sculpting (a beautiful but difficult material to manipulate and cast), exhibiting at the Pitzhanger Gallery, Ealing. Over the years I have exhibited at the Mall and Albemarle galleries and a number of more local galleries, and did many pastel and watercolour portrait commissions and a few larger oil commissions.

I had two wonderful years at the Heatherley School of Fine Art, doing the Portraiture Diploma. I learned a great deal though never really ‘played' joyfully with oil paint so was surprised and touched when I won the Heatherley Portrait Prize at the final show – perhaps because it came about from an impromptu fast portrait challenge a tutor had set up, and I had no time to overthink it.

More recently I found stone carving. When I hammer the chisel to the stone, my heart smiles and it feels as though I have come home. I enjoy that, as an artist I have a sense of what forms I would like to make, but the direction is set by the stone, its shape, texture, colour and density. The stone has its own presence and it is like making a new friend each time. It is liberating and exciting having no idea where something may end, nor of the answers or the solutions until you turn each corner. In the end it is the stone that speaks, I am just discovering its beauty.

I began carving in the quarry on the Isle of Portland, and now I have Veronica Ricks to thank for a wonderful carving class at Heatherleys. This autumn I go to Carrara in Italy to learn how to work with marble. I am excited by how much more there always is to learn.

What is your greatest challenge as an artist?
Two other important threads running through my life are ways of healing and my spiritual journey. They should really enhance and support my artistic journey. As often as not it feels they compete for space and time. Perhaps somehow bringing them all together into one practice will be my life’s challenge.

Favourite piece of kit?
A soft leather stone carver's apron I was given for my birthday.

Recent technical discovery?
Abranet sanding paper – a very useful alternative to the wet and dry.

What makes Barnes special for an artist? 
The beauty, the sense of space away from the bustling crowded city just around the corner, the pond and all its wildlife, ducklings and cygnets with all the passers-by, young and old, who are drawn to it.