ABOUT ME
Life is a journey. After years spent hurtling along the fast-paced highway of a legal career as a family lawyer, I took early retirement from the Judiciary and stepped onto a calmer path – one that invites contemplation, creativity and continual learning. My work now unfolds in several forms.
As a writer I once focused on books about law, theology and professional well-being. These days my writing is more personal, exploring poetry and fiction, and shaping essays that bring Jewish wisdom teachings into conversation with creative practice and societal issues. I write both for private enjoyment, for articles on my blog and for my Substack Newsletter. Occasionally I still publish. I hold an MA in Writing Studies from the University of Lancaster.
I stumbled into being an artist after taking up traditional quilting as form of stress relief. I quickly moved from traditional patterns to experimentation, moving from contemporary quilting to art quilts, eventually to painting and collage. I was privileged to get a start in the art quilt world with the group Twelve by Twelve, co-authoring a coffee table book and exhibiting around the world culminating in our work being taken into the permanent collection of the International Quilt Museum in Nebraska. Over time I became an internationally collected and exhibited solo artist. Full details of my personal exhibitions can be found in my CV below. I am currently taking a break from large exhibitions as I allow my practice to shift and develop in a new directi0n.
Towards the end of my legal career I trained formally as a personal performance coach, a psychosynthesis and leadership coach and an advanced creativity coach. Though I no longer run a full coaching business, I continue to be available to work with a small number of clients accompanying them as they uncover new possibilities in their own life stories.
My legal career also continues in quieter ways: I edit legal material for LexisNexis and work as assessor for CILEX and occasionally train lawyers in essential soft skills.
I get pleasure from singing in my synagogue choir, reading, baking (and eating) cakes, discovering artisan bakeries and street food stalls, writing with a good fountain pen, collecting notebooks, having coffee or dinner with friends and planning round-the-world trips in fine detail.
Each day on this creative path is filled with curiosity, reflection and a need to be willing to wrestle with the unknown. Growth doesn’t stop when a first career ends, it simply changes form, inviting deeper attention and interpretation.
If any of this resonates with you, I’d love us to walk alongside each other for a while
CURRICULUM VITAE
ART WORK
SOLO SHOWS:
2023 Language Lessons Gallery 1889, Liverpool, UK.
2016 The Monte Camino story Stockport War Memorial Art Gallery, UK
2016 Urban Scrawl View Two Gallery, Liverpool, UK
TWO PERSON SHOWS
2018 Traces The World of Glass, St.Helens, UK
2019 Fragments Stockport War Memorial Art Gallery, Stockport, UK
GROUP SHOWS:
2024 Artx, Menorah Synagogue, Manchester.
2019 Liverpool Art Fair Liverpool Waterfront, UK
2018 The Art Of The Print Dot Art, Liverpool, UK
2017 The Liverpool Collection Dot Art, Liverpool, UK
2017 The Last Picture Show View Two Gallery, Liverpool, UK
2018 Transitions By Etcetera Stockport War Memorial Art Gallery, UK
2016 6th European Quilt Triennial 2016
Textilsammlung Max Berk /Kurpfälzisches Museum, Heidelberg ,Textil Museum, St Gallen and Festival of Quilts, UK, 2016
2015 Transitions By Etcetera Rydale Folk Museum Ryedale Folk Museum, North Yorkshire, and Platform Gallery, Station Road, Clitheroe
TWELVE BY TWELVE EXHIBITION TOUR:
2014 European Patchwork Meeting/Carrefour Européen du Patchwork (Colourplay)
Association Belge du Patchwork exhibition (Colourplay)
2013 Midsomer Quilting, Chilcompton, UK (Colourplay)
AQS Quilt Show, Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA (Colourplay)
North West Quilting Expo, Portland, Oregon, USA (2012 Series)
2012 International Quilt Festival, Cincinnati, USA (Theme Series and Colourplay)
International Quilt Festival, Long Beach, USA (Theme Series and Colourplay)
North West Quilting Expo, Portland, Oregon, USA (Theme Series and Colourplay)
Craft & Quilt Fair, Palmerston North, New Zealand (Colourplay)
Australasian Quilt Convention. Melbourne, Australia (Colourplay)
Pinnacles Gallery, Townsville Australia (Colourplay)
AQS Quilt Show, Des Moines, Iowa, USA (Colourplay)
2011 Midsomer Quilting, Chilcompton, UK (Theme Series)
Festival of Quilts, Birmingham, UK (Theme Series)
International Quilt Festival, Houston, USA (Theme Series and Colourplay)
2010 Australasian Quilt Convention, Melbourne, Australia (Theme Series)
Gosford Regional Gallery, NSW Australia (Theme Series)
Textile Art Festival, Brisbane, Queensland (Theme Series)
Craft & Quilt Fair, Hamilton, New Zealand (Theme Series)
Craft & Quilt Fair, Christchurch, NZ (Theme Series)
GRANTS:
2024 Recipient of an Arts Council England (ACE) Developing Your Creative Practice Grant
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS:
My work is in the collection of the International Quilt Museum Nebraska USA
BOOKS:
My work features in:
Twelve by Twelve, The International Art Quilt Challenge – Sterling Publishing, New York, 2011
Africa Wax Print: A Textile Journey, Magie Relph and Bob Irwin – Words and Pixels 2010
Colorplay – Twelve by Twelve the International Art Quilt Challenge – Independently published, 2015
WRITING
1986 to date
I have written eleven legal books, five traditionally published and six (now out of print) through my own imprint, Law for Families.
I have authored hundreds of articles in both legal specialist journals and high street publications ranging from The Times through to British Patchwork and Quilting magazine. Currently I am a freelance editor for Lexis Nexis Publishing. My most recent poetry and lyric essays have been featured in Vita Poetica and Rising Phoenix Review literary magazines.
My Substack Newsletter ‘Encore’ provides regular thoughtful, long form articles about living creatively in the half of life. It is available here.
EDUCATION
CURRENT:
Student on the Rabbinical Programme at Hebrew Seminary
CPD
2023-present Short Courses: Perfectly Imperfect: Discovering your Visual Language ( Laura Wait) , Letterpress workshop, Complete Collagraphy (Sally Hirst) , Lyric Essay writing (Elizabeth Winder) , Confident Composition (Sally Hirst) , Art 2 Life Alumni member
2022 Creative Visionary Programme
2022 Advanced Creative Coaching course with Eric Maisel
QUALIFICATIONS
2022 PG Cert Psychosynthesis and Leadership Coaching, University of Middlesex
2019 Diploma Personal Development Coaching Academy
2013 MA Writing Studies, University of Lancaster
1993 Law Society Finals (Honours) College of Law
1992 M.Phil Criminology , University of Cambridge
1991 LLB, Bachelor of Law, University of Hull