My working week enables me to share my own painting and drawing practice with my patients, I love my job. I am influenced by a love of nature, walking, the British Landscape, still life, (many objects collected from collections of odd pieces I find in local charity shops). Each week is different, as I respond to a patient centred approach, I keep adapting various subjects and methods, some of which then transfer back into my own work, some of which I mention here in my blog, enjoy.
Click each one from the gallery below to read the full article.
Red Pepper
Started a number of drawings and paintings returning to trying to make an image per day, based on food. This was an image of a red pepper, took photo’s throughout and then animated them together. Have been working with mushrooms, cauliflowers, lemons, tomatoes, any food to hand. Reiterate to my clients that they could use […]
Autumn Leaf 5 Minute Demo
Using a lot of natural objects this month in the studio as reference to show techniques. This was quick demo piece showing a particular client how to use watercolours, colour mixing, watercolour pencils, dropping paint in and lifting it off etc, which she specifically wanted to learn. Various plants, seasonal fruits, and many leaves as […]
World Mental Health Day
October 10th was World Mental Health day. I spend much of my time supporting others with mental health problems using art. creating something that sometimes when they don’t want to speak, can work on a subconscious level to help settle and work through feeling and emotions. Looking after my own health and wellbeing is an […]
Green tomatoes, beans and chilli’s with can
End of Sept saw me accompany some of my clients to the West Midlands Flower Show held at Glasshouse College in Stourbridge. I had entered two pieces into the Painting and Drawing Category consulting with them that they were happy to do this, images had to have a gardening theme or reference. To my absolute […]
Autumn Apples Textiles
Spending a lot of time this month working with textiles and using apples as a reference, they seem to be everywhere. Lucky to get the chance to pick a load from my sister’s apple trees. This is a demo piece showing clients how to use a simple image reference using an apple shape, dividing it […]
Sunflowers with charity shop ornaments
This month noticing a lot of sunflowers everywhere and having them in the studio for people to draw, put these with some of the chickens I’ve been collecting from the charity shops, always in charity shops looking for what treasures I can find to include in my pictures.
Visit to The Shard / London
Continuing with my travels and finding great views and locations to inspire me, even though the weather has been so awful in the UK. This trip was a birthday present to include a posh meal, I took a very dear old friend I met at University many years ago, together we appreciated the whole […]
Costa Coffee Project
This is one of my first blog posts for my website. This picture was done as part of a costa coffee project where I took patients out to a variety of coffee shops and we sat drawing and sketching cups, cakes and people. A simple concept which helped peoples confidence and social skills alongside developing […]
I love fruit
Always find that I paint the food I am planning to eat, trying to combine this into a semi abstract style and alter it to make it a bit more interesting. I try to emphasize to my students the importance of having real life objects in front of them to draw, it helps rather than […]
Welsh Hills
This piece is a rough demo pic, acrylic on board, to show colour mixing and various mark making techniques. It’s based on Welsh hills and I’ve used fingers, brushes, sponges and bubble wrap to create various effects, much to the bemusement of some patients.
Mountain Goat Tour
This pic was completed in a sketch book during a trip around the Lake District, via train, bus and boat. It rained a lot during the trip but I’m quite keen on the rain, the skies and the lush landscape in the UK. I met an old widower who was 83 who kept calling me […]