On How I Became An Artist

Last night a friend of mine (and you know who you are if you are reading this blog post) told me that she had just recently read my blog and was fascinated to learn that I had dabbled in Scrapbooking (which is what she does and loves). She then asked, how did you go from that to painting?

So I thought, "great question" and one I do tend to get asked a bit. So I thought I'd address it here.

This might be a long and hopefully not too boring post, so I'll try and keep it to some small dot points:-

• I loved doing art all through school, but in my last year of high school, I had an awful teacher who scarred me for a long time. 
• Eventually I had children and so had a little bit of extra time on my hands and just at that right time (because as they say, things always happen exactly when you need them too) I received a few hand made cards from my sister in law (who is very arty and crafty - here is her blog - http://discoversu.com/ she is a Stampin Up Demonstrator). I thought, ooohhh I'd love to give this a go. So bought some card stock, some stamps, punches and a few other bits and pieces and set about making cards for friends and family
• Eventually I joined a few online groups and discovered different techniques and eventually worked out that I LOVED LOVED LOVED working messy and making backgrounds with mixed media and  paint.

Here is an example of very early work

and another

• Then I dabbled in some scrapbooking, but decided it wasn't really my bag

Here's another early example - 2007

• Wanting to continue and develop  my love for working messy and playing with paint and mixed media, I did a few online courses and made lots and lots of mistakes. One thing not many people know about me, is that I have taken a hammer and a knife to a few canvas's I hated the site of!! ***whoops*** now I know that most of the time I can just paint over it..... but that took me a few years and a few more tears to work that lesson out!

One of my earlier paintings that I've smashed up!

• More experimenting, more play, I have finally discovered that RIGHT NOW at this VERY MOMENT the things I REALLY REALLY love to paint are: 

Beautiful Girls

Trees with birdies in them

Poppies

and a bit of f abstract every now and again. 

These things make me blissfully happy. 

So thank you for sharing my journey. I hope it wasn't too painfully boring and I've managed to sum up about 11 years worth of play and making mess, into a few short paragraphs. But that's it. That's my story and I would love to hear your story if you want to share.