I learnt to draw and paint wildlife from an early age having spend my childhood visiting the local game reserves near Hwange, in Zimbabwe. Drawing and painting wildlife takes patience, prediction and acting quickly to capture movement, movement which is unique to each individual animal. This is what I try to capture in my paintings

I try to be as unobtrusive as possible when I am sketching someone, capturing them as they are, in the moment. As a demonstrator one needs to be inventive and exciting to watch so I often use a variety of mediums, individually and mixed all together, to interpret the character I am painting.

After 23 years of living in the UK, the the changing seasons and the seasonal colours, and eye-catching landscapes still fascinate me. Frosty winter leafless trees, reaching up high, their empty branches, pronounced against dark skies, the unusual light cascading through the gaps down onto shimmering flora. The yellows of daffodils and sunflowers in the spring, Summer poppies, bright red in fields in between long warm ochre grasses. Red kites, initially introduced into the Surry hills, gliding high in cobalt blue skies. And the seagulls, noisily darting into grey seas, walking along pebbled beaches, giving life to my harbour scenes.

Back in Zimbabwe, we had bantam chickens in our garden. And I loved their individual characters, their eyes, the way they cocked their heads. Our cocker spaniel thought it was her job to round them up and keep them safe. Perhaps this is where my love of painting cockerels came from.