Valerie trained at the Fine Art Dept., King’s University, Newcastle on Tyne and at Birmingham College of Art. After some years working as a free-lance artist, she took up a full-time career in Art Education. During this period, she continued to paint and sell her watercolours, and to take on freelance design commissions. For twelve years, until 1989, she was the Publicity Designer for Ludlow Festival. She took early retirement from teaching in order to concentrate fully on her own painting.
She works mostly in water-colour, sometimes in oils or pastel, to paint her own individual interpretation of the natural world. “It is the light falling on a subject that transforms it, and it is the fascination of trying to capture and convey the effects of light that is the stimulus and mainspring of my work”. Her work has been included in two national touring exhibitions, and has been on show in London at the Royal College of Art and in Manchester. She is annually involved in several art group shows.
In past years she has been in regular demand providing workshops and demonstrations for art societies around the West Midlands, including the RBSA. She has twice received a ‘Highly Commended’ in the professional section of the national painting competition run by The Patchings Art Centre, and her work has been put on their website. She received international publicity when she was a Finalist in a competition run by the ‘International Artist’ magazine. As a result of this she was invited to contribute to the book; “How did you Paint That? 100 Ways to Paint Landscapes”, published by International Artist magazine.
She is a member of The Royal Birmingham Society of Artists, Ludlow Art Society and The Arts Society, Shrewsbury, and a past member of The Society of Floral Painters and The Birmingham Watercolour Society.
