The Curriculum Vitae of an Artistic Soul

How fitting! I uploaded my CV onto this lens with lists of education and employment, dates and exhibitions, but this is only the bare bones of the real meaning of Curriculum vitae which can be translated from Latin into this beautifully wide and all-encompassing phrase; the course of my life.

When you follow the meandering route of my career, down valleys, up mountains, by still waters, you will wonder what could possibly join all these activities together, but the thing that makes sense of it all is art. This curriculum vitae is one of an artistic soul searching to put art in the very centre of her life.

I'm still searching for a way to be able to live by my brush, and will probably end my days doing so. Has this voyage been a successful one?

Who knows? One thing I can tell you is that it has been an interesting one, and perhaps that will suffice at the end of the day.

Barbara Walton

by Virginia Woolf

"A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction." A Room of One's Own is an extended essay by Virginia Woolf. First published on 24 October 1929

This is such a potent and pithy concept that applies not only to women writing fiction, or creating art, but for everyone and almost all persuits that are not paid and don't generate a living. Without a secure space to live and work, and without an income large enough to support yourself, it is hard to find sufficient time to make and market artifacts.

There's also another aspect to this that would have been as much a block to the women artists and writers of Woolf's time as to women now, the space must also be in the mind, and the literal space of the room must be protected from all the distractions of life.

No wonder so few people have the means, the energy and the strength of mind to devote their lives to art.

Qualifications in art, teaching and landscape design

We drew at home - all the time as children. My father brought scrap paper home for the railway offices and night after night my brother, sister and I could be found lying on our bellies in front of the TV drawing. As we got older we resorted to tables, and then, one year for my birthday, I was given an easel. A proper, substantial artist's easel which I still use today, (about forty years later!) No wonder then that my brother and I chose to go to Art School after leaving secondary school. It seemed like such a natural step.

1975-76 York College of Art, Foundation course

1976-81 University of Edinburgh, Master of Arts Fine Art Degree

1981-82 Postgraduate Diploma in Drawing and Painting, Edinburgh College of Art

1983-85 Postgraduate Certificate of Teaching (Further Education) part-time Garnett College, LONDON

1992-94 Masters degree in Landscape Design, University of Manchester

Image: York Art Gallery. In my day the College of Art was situated at the back of this beautiful building in the centre of the historic city of York

1988Mercury Gallery, London

1989Grape Lane Gallery, York

1993Angel Gallery, Tiverton

1993Mercury Gallery, London

1994Exeter Arts Centre, Exeter

1997Grizedale Forest Gallery, Grizedale

1981John Kinross Award - grant to study three months in Florence

1981Katriona White Prize

1982Professor Duckham Prize

1982Elizabeth Greenshields Award to study in Sienna

1994Dew Group Prize - for best landscape design

1982Painting Fellow Gloucester College of Art. Artist-in-Residence with teaching on first year degree course for one year

1996Ruskin Gallery/Colle Verde Bursary, Colle Verde, Lucca, Italy. One month October/November

1997Grizedale Forest. Two months, February/March

The most beautiful place in the world, or at least one of them. I was so lucky to be invited to spend a month painting and drawing here.

1982 Two-person exhibition, York University

1983 Four-person exhibition, Gloucester College of Art

1985 Mercury gallery, London and Edinburgh

1986 Mercury Gallery, London and Edinburgh

1987 Four-person exhibition, Charterhouse Wine Bar

1987 Drawing Exhibition/Competition, Paisley Art Institute

1987 Mercury Gallery, London and Edinburgh

1987 John Player Award Competition, National Portrait Gallery

1988 Leicester Exhibition for Schools and Colleges

1989 Mall Galleries Open Exhibition, London

1989 John Player Award Competition, National Portrait Gallery

1989 Mercury Gallery, London

1990 Mercury gallery, London

1991 Mercury Gallery, London

1991 'Woman's Eye', Exeter Arts Centre

1992 Mercury Gallery, London

1993 Mercury Gallery, London

1993 'Woman's Eye', Exeter Arts Centre

1994 Laign Landscape Competition, City Art Gallery, Salford and The Mall Galleries, London

1996 Four person Exhibition, Kasteel Groeneveld, Baarn, The Netherlands

1996 Open Exhibition, Stockport Art Gallery, Stockport

1997 Laign Landscape Competition, The Dean Clough Galleries, Halifax and The Mall Galleries, London

1997 The Ruskin Gallery/Colle Verde Bursary Winners exhibition, Graves Gallery, Sheffield

1998 Vital Art exhibition, Atlantis Galleries, London

2000 Mercury Gallery, London

2011 Gallerie dix-neuf, Saint Mathieu, Limousin, France

Self-employed Artist 1983 - present

Supported myself with part-time teaching, secretarial work and landscape design

1999-2 Landscape Designer Bradford Metropolitan District Council

1996 -99 Full time carer for son

1995-96 Landscape Designer Randall Thorp

1994-95 Landscape Designer Bury Metropolitan Council

1991-92 Admissions Secretary Exeter University

1990-91 Clerical Officer Estates Dept. Wonford Hospital, Exeter

1986-89 Adult Education Teacher, Ealing, Hounslow and ILEA - ran recreational art classes, GCSE Art History

1983-86 Teacher Notting Hill and Ealing High School, London -taught 'A' level Art, Art History and Woodwork

1982-83 Painting Fellow Gloucester College of Art - Artist in Residence with teaching on first year degree course.

• The Artist and Illustrator - July 1991 'In Conversation with the Artist' by Philip Vann
• The Complete Painting Course, Ed. Ian Simpson Published by Quarto Press Plc 1993 (Work used as illustrations)
• The Complete Drawing Course, Ed. Ian Simpson Published by Quarto Press Plc 1993 (Work used as illustrations)

... featuring some of my paintings!