Description
‘Cat and Hen’
Limited Edition Etching 4/85
Unframed and unmounted
Image H 14 x W 25 cm
Paper H 24 x W 33 cm
Collect from gallery £105
Including UK delivery £118
‘As luck would have it I managed to be born in a wild and remote place in Scotland and insisted on being carried up a mountain when a bundle of a few weeks. An understanding mother shared my need and as we approached the summit, she gave me a sweet smelling white thistle which I still have. This first journey was to be very symbolic in my life and work.
A childhood of poverty and hardship – but unrestricted freedom to roam, plus two brothers, meant days of walking from dawn till dusk. A small packet of bread and some orange juice was supplemented by dug field potatoes, cattle molasses and beech leaves.
I brought home and nursed shot rooks, injured rabbits, hares, mice etc. We built tree houses from hay and branches, all day and every day – nature was ours – life outside the sweet smell of hay barns and the ripe smell of pond mud really didn’t exist except as something that loomed ahead.
The clash of a place in an art college or an audition for the National Youth Orchestra was, at 15, a difficult decision. Finally, I chose the college of art. After all I could draw my hares and rooks couldn’t I?! A degree in painting and printmaking was followed by a Post Graduate Degree in Art Education. With this I began teaching. This took me again to wild parts to teach adults and children who were more deprived of the creative side of life. In between I was able to travel and paint.
