“It’s not the critic that counts…”

So begins one of the most inspirational speeches of all time by Theodore Roosevelt.

This painting was inspired by one of my “Sheroes” jockey Rose Napravnik who “dared greatly” and never failed to step up and enter the patriarchal arena. 

I’m a "Lancashire Lass", born and bred in Wigan, England.  

I’ve quite literally met kings and queens, but the “mac ladies’ that populate the streets of my birthplace have riches we could all use; friendship, loyalty, simple love of one another.

In August 1914, at the early stages of WWI, 3 little children wrote to Lord Kitchener asking for their beloved pony Betty to be spared conscription to the cause.

This letter inspired War Horse and Stephen Spielberg’s film of the same name.

These brave children and their ponies lived in my neighbourhood; rode ‘Old Betty’ along the lanes where I rode too.

I was inspired to begin a series….