Before I discovered I could paint, I spent 20 years as novelist and food writer. I stopped writing after I discovered the beauty of pastels. Five years later, I moved on to oil painting. For many years I painted food, big, corpulent food. Now, I paint an inordinate amount of sailboats and dinghies. I am a poor sailor, but I do love the odd curves of a wooden boat. My subject matter reflects my interests in food, old boats, seascapes, Asian influences and, most especially, the quirky.