Most of my working life I produced art for domestic consumption when my day job allowed, and I have always enjoyed designing and making, mainly in textiles – sewing, knitting, embroidering. As a child I enjoyed rummaging through my grandmother’s embroidery threads and her button box. She showed me how to read her knitting patterns and without realising it, I learnt a range of different textile crafts.

More recently I have discovered the freedom of using fabric as a medium that could be as exciting as paint. It lends itself to my pared-back, abstracted images, layering fabric and thread, playing with colour and building an image. I love the zen quality of working and re-working an image.

Having grown up in deepest landlocked Southern Germany I have a lifelong fascination for the sea but I am also drawn to the rolling rural landscapes of my childhood. I love the emptiness of landscapes with only traces of human presence.

I came to England in 1972 and settled in Yorkshire where I taught modern languages at a local comprehensive before joining the Yorkshire Art Circus, a local community-based arts organisation. Before I retired, I was in charge of the constituency office of Yvette Cooper, our local MP. My children grew up in Pontefract where I continue to live with my husband, Brian Lewis.