My friends often ask me about my art and how I got into it. Actually, it was quite by accident. My husband and I were doing well at the time and we made the decision for me to leave corporate IT and stay home to look after our ten-year-old son. Having been frantically busy most of my life I quickly found myself bored and looked for hobbies.
Having never explored my creative side or taken art at school I began making cards. These soon became a hit and I was spending most of my days doing this for little return. I soon tired of it and turned my hand to decoupage.
No surprise when I tired of that too. I mean there are only so many trays, plates, clocks jewellery boxes etc that you can make so next came mosaic. This kept me entertained for some time and I sold a number of customer mirrors, flower pots, plates, table tops and so on. By then I was also becoming a bit bored and needed a new challenge.
I took up photography and loved it. This is where I really learned to see depth, shadow and light. It went so well that I found myself back in full time employment doing mainly portraiture, pet photography and then web products. This was anything from jewellery to plastic drums and even food.
I needed to cut back my hours and fortuitously bumped into an old school friend who was taking art classes and suggested that I join. My first words were “Don’t be silly, I can’t even draw a stick man”. Out of curiosity I went to a class and found the wonder of oil paints. I even discovered that my creative brain only works with a paint brush in my hand as I still struggle to draw.