About

Hello, I’m Sam. I am an artist based in the beautiful countryside of north Northumberland. I have a 9-year old golden retriever, ‘Noodle’ who is my constant companion, we’ve had some serious adventures together - and a semi-feral rescue cat ‘Pepper’, who I’ve had since she was a kitten - she’s now 6 years old.

I produce pictures and paintings in a variety of different mediums which (so far!) have included; watercolour, oils, acrylics, pastels, ink and pencil. I also love to work with more three-dimensional materials and ever since being taught by my Grandma as a little girl, have loved to knit ! This love of wool has now evolved into needle felting and more recently spinning too.

I am inspired by the environment around me, which often results in pictures of animals and the natural environment. But I do also really love painting portraits of people and have been known to enjoy attempting a painting of a building every now and then.

I work to commission, but I also have original work, prints and other merchandise available at some other establishments in Northumberland.

How did I get to do what I do ?

A long, long time ago (!) I got an ‘A’ level in art. I then went on to study History of Design and Architecture at University and taught at several of the Scottish art colleges. For various reasons to do with the need for more money (!) whilst bringing up my two daughters, I went back to Uni to do some post-graduate study which resulted in me spending many years working in the public / charity sector. Although I did undoubtedly learn a lot during those years, this was not what I wanted to spend the remainder of my working life doing. I left that career and went on to study Nutritional Therapy. I became a registered Nutritional Therapist for several years, but during that time realised I had a serious longing to pick up my paints again.

So, at the end of 2017 I drew a picture of a highland cow (in pastel) for my Mum’s birthday. This was put up on my personal Facebook page and lots of people seemed to think it was nice. Friends and relatives started to occasionally ask me if I could do something for them, and although it has taken a number of years with this being a hobby, it’s also a serious passion and this is how I got to where I am today.

Strange that after so many years of studying to ‘find’ what I wanted to do, the thing which I love to do - being creative - was something that I already had within me. I’d just never really nurtured it enough to allow it to flourish and grow. Now I can’t ever imagine doing anything else.