Welcome to my blog

A story about my first figurative drawing that I produced, and that inspired a series of emotion drawings later on. I remember feeling lost, and I was missing someone very special in my life. I felt this urge to draw, feel a release from the creative process, to try and process how I was feeling. Something sprung to mind and I started to draw what I was missing. 

When I studied Fine Art at University, there were two artist that I spent a lot of my time reading about and exploring their artwork, the inspiration for creating works...

As an artist, it makes sense that we should embrace these highs and lows to stimulate expression and inspire our art. But what if you go so low, that seeing the brush for the paint is a task, let alone the wood for the trees. Artcan play a huge role in helping us to find our inner peace and put us on the path to happiness.

I always find it fascinating to read about the benefits creating art can have on our health and wellbeing. Creating art serves as a foundation for self-exploration, understanding, acceptance, healing and personal growth, as well as how embracing the highs and lows could actually stimulate expression and inspire artwork.

As I’m writing this, the sun is shining and I can hear birds tweeting away outside. ‘Spring is finally here’ I think with a smile on my face. Three months of the year seems to have flown by. I love spring time, the sense of new beginnings, colour and the fresh scent of flowers in the air. Plus, of course, the longer days and more daylight…just fills me with a feeling of energy, vitality and positivity.

I'm inspired by the outdoors, being in nature and experiences of life. In particular my festival series expresses the emotion, joy and energy of a festival through line, colour, mark making and texture, adding common shapes, like tents, fireworks, colourful flags, and dancing figures that come from my memories of the festival scene - filled with music, fun, dance and friendship. From painting I explore how this these has evolved...

When I started work on my festival series, I wanted to bring all those experience, emotions, and a feeling of freedom and joy to my pieces. After all, festivals are happy places, filled with positively, that brings people together. I wanted to bring that out in my work, but convey it through colour, light, texture, with the sense of freedom, joy and belonging. I share how I applied these senses and what was produced in the process...

A story about my festival painting 'Happy Days'.

I’ve recently worked on a new festival painting and wanted to share it with you.

The idea was to develop a painting that expressed and demonstrated the difference between the busyness of our daily lives, the hum-drum of daily living and routine, compared to the feeling when we break free of the norm, experience new things, laugh, come together, meet interesting people, and build a positive outlook to live well and happy.

A few weeks ago now but I wanted to share this as I really enjoyed running the sessions and it was just so lovely to connect with others and provide some insight on the powers of Doodling.

Yes doodling. It's been around for an absolute age and is actually a powerful tool in helping you find inner calm, to refocus, have an all important break, and overall can help as part of managing our mental health and wellbeing.

As an artist I found lockdown drain my mood and with it, things that used to inspire and drive me, bemused me, and just seemed grey and dull. It took a bit of time to adjust and take stock of where I was, and actually I found it hard to draw. So I started to draw doodles, mandalas, zentangles, and found that the process of doing very simple lines and pattern helped my mind to be in a much more productive place to be creative.

Whilst in a pandemic, many of us have turned to art to help us through the time, providing us with an outlet, some much needed wellness, and to help our mental health. Art is about expression, and we all need to express how we feel, and in turn, feel better from it. Not only does it allow us a release from stress, tension and uncertainty when times are hard, it also helps us to discover new meaning, to explore, and to feel grounded when things feel a little upside down, helping us to create a air of sense that in turn, enables us to express our beliefs and fears safely, whilst providing a sense of control and calm.