Forgetful Heart

‘I love the colours in this one.’ I’ve heard this before, as someone looks at a piece of my art. I know the feeling myself. My breath catches: What have I created? Or what has created itself, under my hands? We identify with colour in different ways – we feel an affinity with one more than another. We associate feelings and experiences with colour, in both positive and negative ways. Context…

A chrysalis can look so neat on the outside. Tightly wrapped, poised, dormant. On the inside, however, a complete unmaking takes place, the caterpillar dissolving completely. It’s messy, undefined, even destructive at first. In order to make the butterfly, the caterpillar is unmade. Change is present in all of our lives. Life shifts all the time. Sometimes, these changes are more dramatic than…

NEW REFLECTION: Whether you use the metaphors of chemistry or magic, or simply like to think of it as serendipity - there's a spark pf excitement when the combination of elements brings added depth and wonder to a project - and to daily life!

If I don’t create, I stagnate. I have to release the artist within. I get excited by what happens when I create art. I love making connections, joining pieces , seeing how things work together – textures, colours, patterns. This fascinates me beyond art. I have always been interested in how different topics or fields of interest overlap and interact with each other. Discovering these…

why I make art

I make art because it brings me joy. It releases me in a way nothing else can. It is my therapy and my vocation. It is intrinsic to my life and to my wellbeing. I make art because I adore the thrill of discovery, when different textures, materials and colours come together. I spent years trying to pin down life and meaning in words, when I actually hate pinning things down. I find image more…

what happened to the writing?

This is a question I am getting asked, in various ways, lately. How come I am suddenly an artist not a writer? (Although actually writing is a form of art.) Sometimes I sense disappointment in the questions, but usually it is simply confusion. The writing isn’t gone, as such. But it is no longer my primary form of expression. I still accept writing commissions. I have an editorial business…

I do love a fiery sky. This picture was created by a combination of directly painting onto the canvas and also my low-key printing method, where I paint onto paper and then press it against the canvas, which creates my signature texture. The underpainting is often done with a squeegee so the background texture shows through the ‘gaps’ in the foreground paint. The picture builds as I continue to…

This is one of my favourite pieces and the first I am featuring here on my website in a showcase post, which I started doing on my Instagram account. Blaze of Glory is an abstract acrylic on canvas. My first piece to be featured in an exhibition , this is a colourful, striking piece conjuring ideas of sun and sea… with the fiery red sky that is a feature of various pieces of my work. Blaze of…

the art of beginning again

My life has changed big time. And this website is shifting with it. For the foreseeable future it will be primarily art focused, as I explore my new passion (or perhaps finally expressing a passion I have always had!). Writing won’t die – and I expect words will chart my journey of re-beginning at various stages, but imagery has a profound impact on me and is the place I feel most at home these…

don’t let the world change how you walk

I was walking through the mud. Balancing on the more solid strip between two large furrows of sloshiness.

A man was walking his dog and had paused to look at the view. I gave him a socially-distanced smile, passed him and carried on walking. But I was aware he was still watching me – not in an intense way, just as a casual observer.

This did funny things to my feet.

I started trying…

Breaking out of a pattern of thinking can require a lot of courage.

Especially if it defines or guides your life.

And it isn’t always possible until you are ready. No one else can do it for you. No one else can make that heart-deep decision.

You may need to work through a lot of ‘baggage’ first. To let go of a lot of things. To understand what you cannot fix. To realise where you are…

The following originally appeared as an article in The Sign

Learning is intrinsic to our lives. Whether we are deliberately receiving education, or whether we are adapting to unexpected experience, every day is an opportunity to find out something new, to see life from another angle, or gain a new skill.

Much has been made of the fact we all learn differently. This is true. There is no…

I fully intended to write another post rather sooner than this!

But life is what it is and, let’s face it, we all have muddled moments and patches of the journey where we need to stare at the sky for a bit.

Those of you wondering at my quietness, I have been very, very tired recently, and increasingly-severe chronic pain has led the doctor to suggest I now have fibromyalgia as well as ME.…

the Year of Play #oneword365

I have long known what my ‘one word’ for this year would be.

Last year was a year of silence as far as this blog was concerned, although my word for it was ‘dawn’ – in reality it was more of a sense of ‘through the dark to the dawn’….but that is slightly more than one word!

2019 was a tricky year for me in many ways, but there were treasures in the darkness. I am not going to expound on…

Do you like to make New Year’s resolutions? Do you make them, then break them? Perhaps you avoid them, because you don’t want to feel disappointed.

In January the earth lies dormant. We rely on hope in January, then on into February, to see us through – before we start tapping our feet, impatient for spring. We scour the ground for the first shoots from bulbs we planted last year. Sometimes…

O God,

On this first Sunday of advent we consider

The conflict and anxiety in our world,

our country, as well as in the relationships

of those around us.

Big or small,

moments of despair

affect us all.

We cry for a Prince of Peace

who acts with both grace and certainty…

tender to the weary and the wounded,

but challenging those who seek

to injure others with weapons of word or action,

challengin…

God is in the room

Last month I shared the following when I was leading the prayers at a church service; I thought it might be good to post it here as well. It will probably feed into some long term writing, but here’s a taster.

In September I started thinking of the Holy Spirit as a golden current, not literally, but as a kind of visual aid for prayer and reflection. The kind of current you find in the sea – vast…

When you’ve taken a break from something – whether deliberately or not – it can sometimes feel tough to re- start. I think this is often true for writers.

Not all. Some people churn out words, have no problems with motivation or discipline and even when they are time-poor, squeeze writing into that one small patch of available time. Kudos to them.

Very commendable.

Not very me.

It’s true of this…