My Blog

An Introduction

01/07/2021
My pandemic artist journey…
Me


My mother was an artist, as were her 2 sisters, my aunties, so I grew up drawing and painting as a child and was always surrounded by art. Then I dabbled with painting as a hobby, off and on, all my adult life, but it was when the pandemic hit, and we went into strict lockdown last year, that I began to get more serious about my art.

I got sick early on and had to quarantine in my room for a few weeks (I still don't know if it was Covid or something else) and through sheer boredom I began looking for art videos to watch on YouTube. That's when I discovered Louise Fletcher, a Yorkshire artist in the UK, and I joined her online Art Tribe. This led me to her online course, Find Your Joy (FYJ), and that began a new love for acrylic painting and the beginnings of my explorations of working more freely and abstractly. Up until then I was mostly painting realistic watercolours and had begun to paint in acrylic only because it meant I could paint much bigger paintings. Through FYJ I developed a habit of daily painting, which I have continued, pretty much, ever since. Louise also introduced me to another online course, the Creative Visionary Program, or CVP, run by Nicholas Wilton in the US. I have just completed CVP, and this rather intensive course has given me the art education I never had, but always dreamed of.

I have been a member of Richmond Hill Group of Artists for many years now, but last November was the first time that I exhibited with them in a group show at the Mill Pond Gallery. I had begun to paint on wood panels, and the Small Treasures show was the ideal opportunity for me to display my new work. I entered 10 paintings in total and I sold 9 of them (the last one I keep on my bedroom wall as a reminder). To say I was blown away would be an understatement. Thank you to all my friends, family members and even strangers, who bought my paintings. Since then, I have exhibited in some online shows, posted regularly to Instagram, made more sales and I knew that I wanted to build my own website to showcase my work and have a place to direct people to who showed an interest.

I am excited to share this website with you and I hope you will stay in my art world to follow along on my journey as an artist.