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Woodcarving2
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Woodturning 2

Gabrielle's interest in art began in the 1950s at the Douglas Ewart High School in Newton Stewart under the tutelage of Jack Maltman. She would have liked to go on to art school but such devious ambitions weren't welcomed by parents at that time and her career took a different path …

It wasn't until the 1990s that Gabrielle returned to painting, joining the Lunga art group in Argyll taught by Bella Green. Bella's teaching opened new doors, stimulating the imagination, understanding colour, handling different media and revealing many other creative mysteries. As a direct result of this exposure, Gabrielle and her husband bought an old stable in Inveraray and turned it into a tiny art gallery in 1997 exhibiting contemporary Scottish painting by up and coming professional artists. The business continues to flourish in the hands of their successors.

Between Jack Maltman and Bella Green came a long and varied career which included running the British Liaison office during the design phase of the first A300 Airbus in Toulouse, being PA to the Chairman/MD of Tizer in Manchester, and 18 years working for Oxfam, mainly in Africa and the Caribbean. She had the honour of becoming Oxfam's first woman Field Director in 1977 and was awarded the MBE in 1993 for returning to Zaire/Congo to run the Oxfam programme during the 1992/3 insurrection. Between times, she completed training in horticulture and landscape construction and ran her own garden design and maintenance business in Woodstock for two years before "coming home" …

Gabrielle is now leading a quieter life in Galloway and has strengthened her interest in painting firstly by joining Davy Brown's class in oils and then Pauline James's group in watercolour. More recently she and her husband moved to a cottage near Borgue where the influence of Kirkcudbright's lively art community has stimulated the creative juices further.

The journey continues …