About the artist:

The number of paintings produced each year is not huge - around 50, due to the time it takes to complete a painting. Demand, which has been growing steadily over recent years, often exceeds the amount of work available, and commissions can rarely be undertaken. Materials are carefully chosen and sourced. Paint is of the finest quality and often includes rare and genuine colours such as Vermilion, Lapis etc. Fine linen and cotton are used for stretched canvases and the specially prepared panels. The paint is built up in layers over many days or weeks, resulting in the paintings which incorporate detailed realism with painterly qualities, and stop short of photorealism. Size of work is normally from 9"x7" up to approximately 30"x36", and on occasion, larger. Colour and light play a large part in the paintings, and the traditional style of still life painting is brought into present day focus by the use of modern colour combinations and subject matter. It is always the intention that the paintings will invoke positive emotions and feelings with the viewer. ~ Trisha was born in North East England in 1949 and from an early age, drawing and colouring became a favourite pastime and most successful subject in school. This was, at that time regarded as a leisure pursuit. However, her parents seemed to know that she would eventually do something artistic or classical - as was the case with a lot of small girls, she attended ballet classes in the junior school years, and was later sent to piano lessons, which proved not to be her 'forte'. As she was a highly regarded member of both school and church choirs, her parents were delighted to have her accepted for voice training, something at which she excelled and thoroughly enjoyed. It was hoped that, with luck, she would one day sing at Covent Garden Opera. It was not to be - the music revolution of the sixties, and all that went with it, plus the meeting of her future husband distracted her from opera & classical music. A brief and disillusioning encounter with art college led to a clerical career that progressed to the position of company buyer. It was just before Christmas 1984, shopping for gifts to give to her two sons, that she saw a starter set of paints and was given them as a gift from her parents. Painting, from that Christmas Day, became addictive and by the end of 1985 those early efforts resulted in colleagues ordering small paintings as Christmas gifts for the princely sum of £10. At this point, she would never have imagined where this would eventually lead. Now married for 40 years with two adult sons, it was her husband who, in 1989 persuaded her to give up regular paid employment to develop and put to good use her painting skills - quite a risk at the time, but one which has never been regretted, as each succeeding year has seen steady progress. During this time, she has explored many different mediums, materials and subject matter. In the beginning it was almost like the children's story 'The Elves and the Shoemaker' - selling a painting would provide the materials to paint and frame two more and so on. Friends arranged a solo exhibition which was a great success. Albeit terrified and apprehensive, she began to exhibit with The British Society of Painters at their Ilkley exhibitions in West Yorkshire quickly becoming a sought after artist at their various shows. She was accepted by a licensing agent within 6 months and for many years produced a varied range of work for greetings cards, prints, collectors plates etc., all of which sold extremely well, and her style became easily recognizable. It became apparent that her use of colour and light were the true strength in her still life paintings, and early in 1998 began to develop the now familiar, more simplified compositions that have led to such successes as having work accepted for the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition and various prestigious galleries throughout the UK, USA and Europe. Her first major solo exhibition was at Reubens Gallery, Leeds in the Autumn of 2000, and was a tremendous experience and she was overwhelmed by the response to the show, with some visitors vowing to be outside the door for the opening of the next exhibition! The second solo exhibition, arranged for October/November 2001, was an even greater success than the first. People did indeed arrive early to the preview, where over half of the paintings on show were sold within a few hours, and by the end of the exhibition almost all of the paintings had been sold. A 3rd Solo exhibition: 'Up Close & Personal' which also featured the first nine larger than life fruit paintings opened in October 2003, and was an unprecedented success In September 2003, her work had it's first appearance in New York at the Holland & Holland Store Gallery. The October 2004 4th solo exhibition had a queue forming before the preview opening, and saw 3/4 of the paintings sold in less than an hour. In 2005 & 2006, Oban in Scotland was the venue for the 5th & 6th solo exhibitions, at Kranenburg Fine Art, with another opening in September 2008. The 2007 solo exhibition was at Wren Gallery in September 2007.