I was born and grew up in London, although I have lived for many years in Central England. I am a Roman Catholic.

I always enjoyed drawing and painting and, as a teen, was able to visit the London art galleries. I have always regretted not attending art school but, when my legal career ended, I decided that I wanted to do something art-related. In 2012, on a visit to my local art shop, I saw a postcard advertising a course in icon painting being run by the then Prince's School (now the King's Foundation School of Traditional Arts) and I decided to enrol. While I'd had a passing interest in icons and had bought some facsimiles over the years, I thought that iconography was a medieval art which was no longer practised.

During the week-long course, the beauty and spirituality of icons spoke to me and gave me a desire to learn more both about creating icons and their theology and history.

Over the next twelve months, I read all I could about iconography and joined the St. Luke's Icon Centre in Warwickshire where the group meet each week to support each other in icon painting and with prayer.

I then heard about a three-year part-time course starting at the St. Peter's Centre for Sacred Art in Canterbury with tutor Peter Murphy. I was accepted onto the course which focused on Byzantine and Cretan style icon painting.

The course covered every stage from the preparation of the wooden panels and gilding techniques through to drawing and painting in egg tempera and varnishing. The culmination of the course in 2017 was an exhibition of students' work in the Chapter House of Canterbury Cathedral.

As well as practical work our group travelled to Venice, Florence and Sienna to see ancient icons and add to our knowledge. Peter's course allowed me to deepen my appreciation of the beauty of icons and to realise the skill needed to paint a good icon.

Since the course ended, I have continued to paint icons and have exhibited in Warwickshire and elsewhere. In 2019 I had the opportunity to travel to St. Catherine's Monastery, Mount Sinai, to see some of the world's oldest icons including the Sinai Christ icon.

I enjoy the contemplative nature of icon painting; learning about, meeting and praying to the saint I am painting and attempting to faithfully represent them in the icon.

It is my hope that the viewer of icons might glimpse a little of the beauty of heavenly divine light and experience the spiritual serenity of God's love for them.