I was born in Glasgow in 1965 and adopted a few days after birth by a couple, my adoptive father a minister in the Church of Scotland. My childhood was shaped by movement and landscape, with my family relocating several times before settling on the Hebridean island of Jura. I attended high school on the neighbouring island of Islay and, in 1983, moved to Dundee to study Fine Art at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art.

After graduating, I moved to Edinburgh, continuing to draw and paint alongside a variety of jobs, including work in retail, childminding and cleaning. In 2003, my husband, our two daughters and I moved to Oxford, where I continue to live and work. I now paint from a small garden shed, surrounded by greenery and birdsong - an environment that reflects the natural focus and quiet observation central to my practice.

In the early 2000s, I discovered that my biological father was Orcadian, creating a new and personal connection to the northern islands. The landscapes and wildlife of both the Hebrides and Orkney underpin my work. These places, their weather, light, birdlife and the shifting edges between land and sea, continue to shape how I see and how I paint.