If you are going to turn your life upside down, then you may as well do it properly. The last time I did that was 4 years ago when |I made the decision to live and work in my van. Life has a funny way of catching you out and just when you thought you had mapped out the next couple of years something or someone will come along to derail those plans. I like to think I’m flexible and open to change but I suspect that as a woman of a certain age I am probably a little bit more stuck in my ways than I think I am! So now that life has thrown me another curve ball it’s time to make some more big life decisions and to take that leap of faith. And sometimes it pays to check your junk box……
Van Life.
As my personal circumstances have now changed, I will be returning to a life spent less on the road. I won’t be giving up van life completely, but I will now be in a permanent base in Norfolk to work on an exciting new project, and I will be cutting back on the travelling though I will still be on the high seas and making visits abroad from time to time. My poor van has been mostly parked up for the last 2 months as I’ve just finished another 3-week trip teaching on a SAGA ship, this time to Greece and Turkey with mostly ports I hadn’t visited before. We had glorious weather, delicious food and full classes of lovely guests. I’ve been back to the van from time to time to give it a run and luckily there have been no engine or mouse problems. This has been my home and my safe space for 4 years, so no plans to sell her off just yet! The Van life section will be changing to Studio Life for the next newsletter, and it will be interesting to see how much of an influence my studio space has on the work that I produce.
Art Life
I spent a glorious 3 weeks in Harwich studio and dog sitting. This gave me an opportunity to do some painting and drawing and to work on some more hand-made artists books as well as a brand-new project. This new and exciting project came via email but wasn’t spotted until I checked my junk box for some unknown reason one evening, in future I will be checking my junk box regularly! I will be sharing details of this new long-term project in the next few newsletters. This is a weighty amount of work to get my teeth into and will need some serious commitment time. It is going to be great to be in a space where I can roll out of bed and get to work rather than roll out of bed, move the van, hope my Wi-Fi is working and then have to decide where I’ll be sleeping that night before getting down to painting.
I was delighted to have 2 pictures accepted for the SGFA show at the Mall Galleries in mid-March and it was great to catch up with many artist friends on the private view evening. When I’m in my own little bubble I forget sometimes how important it is to connect with other artists.
I also have two pictures that will be exhibited at the Society of Botanical Artists Exhibition at the Mall Galleries in London in May ( 28th to 7th June ) It will be lovely to attend the private view and see so many old friends and meet new members. These 2 exhibitions usually sit closely in time each year and as soon as they are over, I have to start thinking about what I will be painting for the next year!
I am struggling to find a venue for the residential that I would like to run that is affordable, convenient, has good food and a suitable teaching space. I still have a date of October in my mind but it’s difficult to decide if the accommodation is more important or the art? I’m still investigating options but the dates I have blocked in my diary are 13th to 19th October. If this is something you would be interested in, then let me know by leaving me a message via my website. I am looking at holding this in Norfolk which is a beautiful area with many interesting places to visit.
Teaching and travel in May, June and beyond …..
I will still be available to teach at art societies, workshops and private groups in the next few months. As I will now be based in Norfolk, I will be looking at locations to teach in this area so do contact me if you are in the East Anglia region and have any suggestions.
I will be back at West Dean in May and again in August for the week-long summer school. We will be playing with some granulating multi pigment paints in these workshops from Jackmans paints. I’ve been using these for some time now and am very excited to include these in my workshops. At Summer School we are given the opportunity to collect and paint specimens from the gardens which is a treat.
I will be teaching in a new location at The Oast Studios, in Hartfield, East Sussex. They do some fabulous courses so check them out if you are in that area. I have 3 classes scheduled here in May and June, all fully booked but hopefully more in the future.
I have one more month of KCC day workshops in both colour pencil and watercolour before these will finish completely. The funding and focus has sadly changed at Kent County Council and as far as I am aware they will be greatly reducing their number of creative courses. Such a shame and in my opinion a huge loss to the community.
I will be back on my last teaching cruise of the year in July, a SAGA trip to Iceland. The Norfolk open studios are also on in this month so it will be great to visit a few studios and connect with some artists in the local area.
I will finish here as this Newsletter is a week later than I intended. Thank you for reading this far and for following my adventures here.