I was born in Paris in 1957, and grew up largely in Nantes, a major provincial town in the West of France. My initial exposure to abstract art came through my grandmother, who had a small collection of Modern Art and frequently took me along to galleries of contemporary works. After I left school, I spent some time working as a photographer’s assistant in Paris. At the age of 21, I moved to the French Caribbean island of St. Barts, where I became a furniture maker. Five years later, my life’s journey took me to Costa Rica, where I spent a couple of years, making furniture and enjoying an ascetic lifestyle on an orange and coffee plantation. After I married a New Zealander in late 1986, we moved to Hawkes Bay (New Zealand) where I combined raising two sons and crafting furniture pieces. During those years, I participated in a number of craft exhibitions, which culminated in a ‘duo’ exhibition in Hastings in 1992. My furniture had a distinct emphasis on design and was built with care. Sales were slow however, and I gradually moved across to the discipline of design. I became a part-time tutor in product design, in the arts department of the local technical college (EIT, Hawkes Bay). In 2002, I returned to formal studies in that same college and gained a Bachelor in Visual Arts, followed the next year by a Post Graduate Diploma in Fine Arts from Elam in Auckland. I have been painting nearly full time since then, and my work has been shown in Auckland, Wellington, Dunedin, and Hawkes Bay. Recently remarried, I still reside in Hawkes Bay.