Thank you for being here

Thank you for being here reading this, my first blog post of the year. 2018 was an unforgettable year for me. It had some incredible highs, and some very bad lows. Throughout it all my art has been my life saver and constant companion.

For the lows

We spent much of the year backwards and forwards to hospitals, culminating in losing my Mother-in-law and Father-in-law. There were also a number of really stressful personal situations to handle, I didn’t handle all of them very well. Sometimes it’s hard to keep it all together when the world appears to be falling apart around you. Well, that’s honestly how it felt at the time, it was as if I was on the Jeremy Kyle show and I didn’t like it much at all. But whenever I got the chance I got into the studio and did something creative, it really helped me stay sane.

And the highs

I kick started the year by taking CVP – Creative Visionary Programme with the  Californian artist, Nicholas Wilton. This was an intensive three months that literally changed my art practise in the most amazing way. I discovered that I could overcome my resistance around making art and really enjoy doing it, I have had more fun making fun this year than ever before.

This summer I exhibited two paintings in the Society of Women Artists annual exhibition at the  Mall Galleries in London. Another highlight was being selected for the inaugural Art2Life online exhibition.

A subject dear to my heart is good mental health, so I began fund raising for the charity, Mind. I do this by donating 30% of the money I receive from direct painting sales to them. Just before December I sold four paintings to kick-start the donation. I’d like to say a huge thank-you to everyone that bought a painting, it meant a lot to me and of course to Mind.

Looking forwards to 2019

I’m super excited about next year. I’m continuing to paint and raise funds for Mind.

Later this month I’m exhibiting two paintings at the The Nude Tin Can gallery in St Albans. This promises to be an exciting exhibition of contemporary work all about the human figure. I do hope you can make it.

I’m going to be sharing my love of being creative to improve wellbeing by running some workshops. These will be focussing on easy ways to get started making art and building it into your everyday life. This is a new venture for me and I can’t wait to get started. If this is of interest, get in touch and I’ll tell you more.

Thank you once again for being here. For every ‘like’, ‘love’, ‘comment’ or message you have given me throughout the year. I really appreciate it.

I hope you have a wonderful creative fun filled and healthy year.

Stay in the loop

If you’d like to know when a new blog post comes out and get updates on new work, exhibitions workshops and art tips please sign up to my mailing list. I won’t bombard you with emails and I will never share your information.