It was written in the tea leaves...
Hi! Welcome to my blog, where I will share works in progress, behind the scenes information and time lapse videos of my paintings.
As this is my first entry, it seems only fitting to give you a bit of insight into my history as an artist and how Not A Blank Canvas all began...
Growing up, I have always been a very creative person. I always loved writing stories, drawing pictures, staging musicals with my reluctant siblings and, I would say, somewhat less reluctant cousins and forcing our parents and grandparents to sit through them all! I remember a family holiday in France where my Grandad set up a fruit bowl, some wine glasses, a bottle and a candle and taught us how to paint. I remember him teaching us to be really observant, to really stop and look at something and see all the different shades of colours, to notice light and shadow. An engineer by trade, he was also an insanely talented, yet incredibly humble artist himself. Here's one of his paintings:
At primary school, my love for painting continued. In Y4, I won a poster competition reminding people to "scoop that poop" and got to meet the mayor at Tullie House in Carlisle (where I ended up getting married many years later) and in Y5 I had my painting of a waterfall sold off in a secret auction - so secret I had no idea it was happening and without my consent might I add! So guess who ended up buying that painting? My long-suffering parents... Perhaps that was the start of my strong emotional connection to my original paintings and my reluctance to part with them!
I got to secondary school and art became one of my favourite subjects, along with French and German. I picked it for GCSE and again at A-level and spent every lunch time in the art room. Then I started thinking about university and I sadly didn't think that I would be able to make a living as an artist. So I chose to do languages. Over the next 11 years, as I qualified as a languages teacher and moved into the classroom, I did an ink painting here and there as a way to de-stress, but not much. The pandemic lockdown was a nice opportunity to pick up a paintbrush again, but we lost my Grandad to covid and it was hard to find motivation.
In my final year of university I had moved on to sewing as my main hobby and joined a fantastic musical theatre company in Sheffield. The years went on and we bought a house that needed renovating, got engaged, switched jobs - my husband started his own business and I became a Head of Department at a secondary school - we got married, got pregnant and that was when I decided I needed a change.
I knew I could probably drop down to part time in my current job and stay there until retirement, but I don't think I would ever have been truly happy. Furthermore, I wanted to be able to spend time with my daughter, to raise her myself and to be happy in my job, for her. So I knew I was going to quit my job as a teacher, but I wasn't fixed on what I was going to do next. I figured I would use my maternity leave to try and figure things out.
Now, my sister-in-law had a hen do, and at that hen do she hired a tarot and tea leaves reader. It was a lovely hot day in May when I was handed a steaming cup of Earl Grey swimming with loose tea leaves. As I grit my teeth and tried to down the tea in between glasses of prosecco, I had my doubts. I'm not a big believer in fortunes, but was prepared to be open-minded about it. Here's what my cup looked like when I was finished:
The first thing the tarot reader saw was that my cup was very future facing. She said there were lots of opportunities and that the future was not fixed. She also saw lots of birds, which she told me symbolise freedom and liberation. I hadn't told her anything and tried not to give anything away, but this immediately struck a chord as I had handed my notice in at school just about a week or so before so I was inwardly grinning as liberated was definitely what I was feeling! She said birds also represent knowledge and learning and that the big bird you may be able to see in the image would be someone in my near future that would bring a lot of knowledge to the table and be like a mentor to me. She told me that I would revisit something from my past that brings me joy and that I may be able to make money from it and that would be great, but that would not be where the true value came from.
Fast forward a few weeks and I'm enrolled on the Prince's Trust Enterprise Course. I've been assigned a fantastic mentor, Isha, and I've undertaken lots of new learning and I continue to learn as I go. I already feel so much happier spending each day with my baby girl and not having that oh so common back-to-school dread. It just remains to be seen now if I can make a living from my art, but there we go. You could say I was destined to return to art.
This is the first piece I did after 11 years, just before my baby was born, and that is why it is called "Like A Phoenix".
Whether you purchase my work or are just here to view, thank you for supporting my small business. I hope you'll stick along for the ride and see if this is indeed what was written in my tea leaves! She could be wrong and I may yet have to drag my cousins and siblings back together and force our parents to sit through another terrible play!
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