Who does all the art?
‘Who does all the art?’ Asked a client I treated yesterday, as he looked at the gallery wall.
A client who is not subscribed to the newsletter, and has no interest in any social media, so how would he know?
Me. It’s my art.
Now that shocked him a bit. Then came the questions: How long have I painted? Where do I paint? How do I do it? When do I find the time?
When I explained that I work with energy and embed it in the painting, that was probably a little too weird for him! He still liked the work though.
It made me think that those sort of questions will be asked at my exhibition in the autumn. It was an interesting conversation! I wasn’t embarrassed that I am not a professionally trained artist, and that surprised me. I was a child at school in the 70s when you only got the chance to take art if you were good. That meant being able to draw a resemblance of something that was tangible – like a person, a scene or an animal. I didn’t have that skill. Only the gifted ones were allowed in the art hut!
I’d forgotten how it all started.
When I went off to college at the age of 17 for a three year course in Beauty Therapy and Hairdressing, I was worried sick when we found out that we had a whole afternoon of art on a Friday afternoon. Not only was it at the end of a mad week of intense classes, I had discovered that most of my friends had take Art at A Level. This was not good. Not good at all. This was 1984. Well before the internet and mobile phones. We had no access to computer generated graphics and publishing programmes. When the brief was to design the interior of a reception area, or a carrier bag for a salon or brand, it was done by hand.
I did ok!
Surprisingly I finished with distinction alongside the ones who were naturally gifted. I realised that the tutors just needed to see that we had the creative ability to get our ideas across. After all, if we ended up with our own salons, we wouldn’t be making our own carrier bags, but we just needed to communicate our ideas to those who could.
Time flowed on, and several salons of my own later, I needed a holiday. I was single and holidays alone weren’t easy, so I enrolled on a drawing and painting for beginners course at Dillington House. In the days when the word mindfulness hadn’t emerged from the ether, a whole week of being absorbed by drawing and painting was indeed just that – Pure Mindfulness. Learning about perspective, water colour, shading, pen and ink, and being totally uncontactable for a whole week. Bliss.
It was always with me.
Now, my grandfather was a painter and potter. He was talented metalworker and a fantastic gardener. My grandmother could sketch superbly, and run up clothes for us as children, from remnants and offcuts without the need for a pattern – A little like the Von Traps! I guess some of that creative DNA passed though to me.
One of my first silk paintings
Just before my amazing grandfather passed away, he was fascinated by some hand painted silk work I had taken to show him. I had been on another course at Dillington run by Paula and Simon Kennevan. I loved painting on silk as it was more illustrative, rather than pure water colour. I even sold a a few pieces – one of which one of my clients still has!
That was 23 years ago.
The last things I painted were 50 wedding invitations. Soon after that my salons grew in size and staff numbers, so I had no time, or space for painting. The paints travelled through two house moves until last autumn when I cleared out the stair cupboard. There were two ginormous spiders, so the cupboard was completely emptied to ensure it was a spider free zone – thank you MrH – and I found all my old paints and blocks of paper. A trip down memory lane and then a massive shove to start again!
I’d had a few nudges from friends to start painting in a creative, contemporary way, using Reiki and the energies within me. And so it begins. Energy Art.
The non-ski holiday in March enabled me time to really start. Ever since then it’s just exploded! Several commissions later, sales to people all over the country, a vibrant Instagram feed, and now I have my debut exhibition booked for October at The Langford. My work may float your boat, and you can feel the energy within each piece. Some people buy art because the colour suits their decor, others purchase because a piece feels right and makes them happy.
I generally paint on hand made rag paper, with larger pieces being on canvas. Come and see for yourself…..
Please don’t worry if you are a client of mine – I certainly won’t be changing jobs! The art runs alongside my treatments and healing work within the salon. I could never give that up. I love it too much!
If you are interested in the development of the art – you can find me on Face Book at @Waysideart
There is also a new website – Wayside Art
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