Passionate about teaching Val has taught extensively across a diverse range of art courses at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. She is Course Leader for the One Day painting course and also currently teaches both art practice and theory at Edinburgh College of Art. She has exhibited widely and her writing has been published in academic books and catalogues. Her current painting practice is rooted in nature and she takes inspiration from the wood and scrubland next to her home in the outskirts of Edinburgh. She has received several awards for her painting and was awarded The Katherine Michaelson Prize for art writing.