Regressing to my teenage gothic self at Whitby Abbey

One hundred and ninety nine steps up from a harbour town stands the imposing Gothic remains of a 13th Century abbey. On a clear day you can see for miles around, out to the North Sea on one side and across the Yorkshire moors on the other. And on days when the weather is rainy…

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Swedish Summertime – and the living is easy

One of the things I learnt about Swedish people in the three years that I lived there, is that they really know how to celebrate and enjoy the summertime. In a country that is cold and dark for muc… Source: Swedish Summertime – and the living is easy

Matemwe Beach – Far Away in Time

At 31 degrees centigrade and with a hotch potch of people who frequent it, Matemwe Beach is a melting-pot in every sense of the word. Between sunrise and sunset the beach, situated on the northeast coastline of Zanzibar, becomes a hive of activity with scores of Zanzibari women wearing bright coloured kangas wading into shallow…

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The dead cities of Syria

Scattered across the northwest of Syria, between Aleppo and Hama, are more than 700 abandoned settlements known as the Dead Cities. I visited these curious Roman and Byzantium ruins fourteen years ago, while I was living and working in Damascus. Little did I know at the time that Aleppo, the stylish and classical city where I was…

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Buying and Selling Bananas in Kenya

This is my latest painting, a watercolour of a group of women buying and selling bananas and mangoes at a street-side market in Kisii, a town in south-west Kenya. The painting was done from a quick sketch I did some months ago while travelling from Mwanza in Tanzania to Nairobi.

Hope over the Horizon – Sunrise on the edge of the Ngorogoro Crater

While camping on the edge of the Ngorogoro Crater in Tanzania I decided to wake up early to watch the sunrise. What I witnessed was nothing short of breathtaking. Snuggled up inside my hoodie and scarf, I sat alone, mesmerized by the changing horizon before me and watched as the African sky changed from an…

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Colours Speak Louder Than Words

The colours in Tanzania are so vibrant and varied that I am almost certain there must be more shades here than there were in England, my homeland. I used to take many photographs in black and white, but in Dar Es Salaam, it seems such a waste to ignore the vast spectrum of shades that…

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Endless Abstract Land

Endless Abstract Land is my interpretation of the Serengeti and is painted using ink and acrylics. Serengeti comes from the Maasai Maa word Serengit and means endless plain and this vast area of grassland spans northern Tanzania and southern Kenya and covers approximately 12,000 sq miles. As I travelled through these immense plains, which are…

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Chaotic commuting

Twice a week I commute from the rural outskirts of Dar es Salaam to centre of the city to where I teach in a school. My not-always-but-sometimes chaotic journey consists of three sections. First a car from Kisota in Kigamboni, along bumpy rural roads, where we sometimes get stuck behind a herd of cows and…

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Neon Lights in Downtown Dar Es Salaam

I love the anonymity of driving through a busy city at night. On this occasion I was sat in the passenger seat and so I was able to capture some of Dar Es Salaam’s neon lights on camera. These photos were taken as we drove through the centre of Tanzania’s busiest city from Masaki to…

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Livin’ La Vida Loca

About a week about ago, I was “talent” spotted to work as a freelance designer for an international clothing manufacturer. The company, VIDA, are based in San Francisco and essentially make women’s tops, scarves, bags and wraps. So I’m thrilled to share with you some of the items from my latest collection on VIDA! This collection…

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