Art and artists

Fiona has been drawing since she was a child and has trained as a Fashion Designer and a Landscape Designer but an underlying desire has always been to be able to paint in watercolour.

Having lived in the Northumberland countryside for most of her life, born in the village of Plashetts now under Kielder Water, and recently returned from living in a small village in South West France it is the natural world that inspires and drives her to be creative.

Fi and Rowan

A love of gardening, plants and anything at all natural, such as wood, stone, cotton, linen and silk inspire her to paint or create textile images. It was while she was living in France that she tried Blue Sun Printing and making hand made cards to sell at the local English market. These she created from small snippets of water colour paintings topped with a pressed flower gathered from her walks or her garden, one card inspired her to create a picture in painted silk with hand and machine embroidery.

It was half a day spent with a former art teacher from Derbyshire that helped her to develop the style of painting she now uses, and which is still changing. Many of the images shown here are of places in France near where she lived or visited, images of Cumbria are a work in progress. Fiona now lives and works in Carlisle, she exhibited her work for the first time as part of the 'Hidden Gems of the North West Art Trail' in June 2008.

Words and pictures courtesy of Fiona Ashford.