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About Me

I design create and sell hand painted silk scarves and ties. I was a teacher for most of my working life, but art was always my passion. I loved creating batik pictures by drawing with hot wax and seeing it resist the dye.  When I left college I began selling my batiks at the Bluecoat Display Centre in Liverpool. They were framed abstract designs on cotton fabric. Later I started doing landscapes on silk, hence the name ‘Scenic Silks’. I also painted large silk square scarves with all kinds of designs including astrological signs, dolphins and cats.

Silk Batik and Tjanting
One of my first silk batiks and I’m using the tjanting tool

On ties I was asked to paint a wide range of subjects including puffins, canal boats and cruise liners! It was quite a challenge to squeeze the details into such a small space. Now all my designs on scarves and ties are abstract, but occasionally I paint scenes for a commission.

I draw inspiration for my textile art from natural forms such as the sandstone rocks that form an outcrop in the Dee Estuary near where I live. The Hilbre Islands and surrounding landscapes continue to provide a rich resource for my sketches, that are interpreted into batiks on paper, or paintings in other media.

Rock Pool Batik on Silk
Rock Pools, Hilbre – moving towards abstraction.