She studied Fine Art (painting) at Central St Martins in London and has travelled extensively spending two years in India, Thailand, Australia and New Zealand. These experiences of vivid colour, light and landscape are apparent in her work. The paintings are layered and then, in part, scraped back in order to reveal what lies beneath. Val's multi-layered oil and wax paintings reward long and careful observation, at one and the same time stimulating the imagination and inducing quiet contemplation. Val's work takes us on a spiritual or literal journey. Val paints in relation to the indefinable, transient nature of ‘being’. Her paintings are meditative and mysterious. They are textural, intimate, poetic pieces that beckon the viewer to touch.

Val is fascinated by colour, by the elements, and the play of light. She is interested in expressing states of mind, movement of consciousness, or an open space full of possibility. Colours are juxtaposed, often in a landscape form, inviting us to bring our imaginations into play, to enter into another world, to let go of our fixed preconceptions and see beyond the known. She endeavours to reside in beauty and to make that which is invisible, visible. 

Val is a practising Buddhist and for the past ten years has been living and working in a retreat centre in the Brecon Beacons. She now lives close to the Peak District, where she paints full time.