My work is about colour – in landscape both locally or in sunny climes, the essence of flowers in a vase or garden, or glimpses of colour in the darkness of a cathedral. I work directly from the subject using drawing and watercolour to get down my first impressions. Sometimes the finished work is a pure drawing or painting or I will choose to make an original print by various methods including monoprint, drypoint and collagraph. Drypoints are made by scratching into the plate to make drawn, gestural marks, whereas collagraphs are literally collaged materials that create embossed textures and a huge variety of surfaces. Monoprints are a one-off image made from inking and wiping an individual plate, generally having a more painterly feel. Some of the work is representational, describing actual places or images, others extract elements to make more abstract work. Recently, my work has pushed beyond depiction, concentrating on colour and form, combining the monumental with the minutiae in nature, such as a carved angel in a beautifully arched church ceiling meeting a moth; the Emperor in new clothes. Titles are becoming more important; anchoring the work but at the same time expanding possibilities for exploration and creating a body of work on a theme. All the prints I make are limited editions; each print finished individually and hand-coloured to create a unique image. The final working is the most critical, with each piece dictating its own finish.