I'm now into my 59th year of creating mandalas. What started as an exercise in copying a 'yantra' out of a book on Tibetan Buddhism has become a lifetime of practice.

Though I have no 'formal artistic training' I have gathered a range of creative visual skills and a toolbox of media with which I create mandalas.

I've also been lucky enough (alongside other creative activities I've been involved in) to work & play with adults, young people & children making individual & collaborative mandalas.

As far as I know I'll continue to make them until I can no longer hold a pencil or paintbrush or move stones on a beach or twigs & leaves in a wood.

In 2017 I decided it was time to learn about visual art in a structured way so started the journey of an A level in Art & Design. An interesting & at times challenging project.

I completed my 1st year & postponed my 2nd year indefinitely as I felt that I needed time to absorb & apply all that I had learnt in the first year. I also started to be unwell….leading to more heart surgery in August 2019.

Out of that first year project I’ve been working on a long term project to create a single edition book of images, mandalas & words called  "A Book of  Elements" inspired & informed by Celtic art such as The Lindisfarne Gospels, The Book of Kells, Tibetan & Indian Art, the work of William Blake, Aubrey Beardsley & the shapes/forms of the natural world.

I intend to launch the project in Spring 2023 with participatory workshops in dance theatre, music &visual art with high school students pupils at 2 schools in Northumberland & a local drama group. These sessions will explore our relationship with the natural world, the coming climate catastrophe, what we can do to engage with it and possibilities for action & optimism.

I've also been developing my skills in painting onto ceramic tiles & bowls as well as creating a series of paintings inspired by a visit in 2018,2021 & 2022 to the standing stones at Carsluith in Dumfriesshire & a series of corona mandalas that have grown from my perception & experience of the Coronavirus epidemic.

I have a studio in a good sized shed at the bottom of the garden in which I explore the possibilities of expanding my art form out from the structure of the mandala.