I moved into the house 16 years ago on a sunny day with my husband and a cat, a sofa and a table, a plan chest, some paintings and lots of books. Now there are two children who are quite big, two dogs and five cats, and sometimes Robin and his dog Larry, more books, more paintings, more furniture, a squash and a squeeze. So, after more than 24 years of working full time as a professional artist it is time to build a new space, a studio where I can work that has space to move. Hopefully this page will follow the progress of the new studio from the day it began, to moving in and painting there.

At first I had hoped to use the attic space and asked a friend who is an architect to come round and look, measure up and see what could be done. He went into the attic, and the minute the cats heard the ladder going up they came running from all sides and followed. They helped with the dusting and the measuring up and caught cobwebs in their ears.

But the space is to short, the roof would have to come off, there would still not be enough height, so it was back to the drawing board on ideas and I began to get used to making the best of what I have. I have worked in my bedroom in a bedsit, a large caravan, a small caravan and now my studio is a room in the house. But Mark measured up the house, with the help of Stuart and Mr Griffiths from next door, and a few weeks later some wonderful plans arrived in the post, and now I am back to hoping again, hoping that the planners will pass the plans, that I can raise the funds, that I can find builders who will do the job and that I will be able to work while it all goes on.