I am a music teacher in a primary school. When I took up painting about 18 years ago, it was because I thought it would be a lovely,  relaxing thing to do in the evenings after school - but oh dear, how very wrong I was! Painting is not at all relaxing, it is all about making decisions, experimenting, taking chances - and all this needs energy and time! It is also very physical and altogether quite hard work. But I love every minute of it and you can’t think about anything else when you start working, you are in a quite different ‘place’ from normal life.

I never make pictures in order to please other people. Therefore I am free to experiment and to try out different ideas without any fear of how other people will judge my work. I have to be careful not to think too much, as this makes me too careful, producing stiff drawings. For me, it is best to hear light chatter in the background, or music; I think this takes up the thinking part of my brain and allows the creative side to get on with the job without my more sensible side interfering or criticising. The right music can also be very inspiring to work with and helps my imagination to flow.

My favourite medium is charcoal, because I love its changeability - you can move it around and rub it out so easily. You can fill the page with black charcoal, and use your rubber to draw, which gives a lot of atmosphere. Black and white give marvellous contrast which I adore because of the exciting effects of light and shadow. I just keep drawing until a face or figure is suggested that seems to be resonating with me.

Sometimes as many as fifteen different characters have appeared and been changed into background in my drawings before I find the ones I am waiting for. Creating a balanced picture out of these figures, which have sometimes popped up in unusual places, can be an interesting and almost impossible challenge!

I also adore colour. I often flood the paper with water, then drip inks and dyes with a pipette and tip the paper to guide it around; in this way you can control it a little but you mainly get marvellous surprises and effects as the inks run into each other. When it is dry I gaze into the paper until faces or figures begin to emerge from the blobs and shapes - like seeing wild horses in the flames of a fire - and with charcoal I just draw in whatever I see and construct the rest of the picture around that. I use coloured pastels to add more colour, they merge beautifully with the dyes.

I was fascinated to read in Leonardo da Vinci’s secret diaries to his pupils (he wrote them in reverse, so that they could only be read by looking at a reflection) that he recommended gazing at walls and drawing the cities, scenes and armies you could see there, in order to extend their imagination. This is similar to the way I look at my backgrounds. Sometimes I do a landscape or still life, and I usually begin to find figures emerging amongst the scene, rather like happy ghosts, and I just draw these in. As soon as there is one face there I feel excited and enjoy doing the picture much more, it feels like creating a real family of people and situations!

I love the way that a small mark can completely change an expression; it is the feeling that comes out of the person’s face and body which interests me most. I also enjoy a suggestion of mystery and for the viewers to play their part in deciding what the picture is about. My latest project is a series of drawings and paintings on the theme of giving and receiving, trying to explore people’s emotions and reactions - and it is usually the person giving who is the most joyful, receiving can sometimes be harder!

Painting has changed my life and opened out my mind to other worlds and possibilities, as well as giving me the pleasure of seeing my work up on the wall, the thrill of finding a completely new skill at my age, and the fun of meeting other like minds on workshops. Anyone can take up painting, and if you feel you would enjoy it too, you can find out by going on a course and an exciting new world will open out to you. Try it!

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