This is a snippet from an interview I did for Angie Fresch. 'The most difficult thing about my career change was overcoming the fear. However, I’d say that fear and lack of confidence is not a reason not to do it. You might think you’re the most timid, under confident person, but you can do it. Confidence comes naturally when you follow what you love.'
The VIP night at Wimbledon Art Fair was opened with a great talk by Kate Byran. Kate Byran is the Head of Collections for Soho House and a TV presenter for programmes on the BBC, Sky Arts and Sky Arte Italia. Kate is also a mentor, working with young women in the arts to see them reach their potential. She is especially passionate about attracting new audiences to contemporary art. Kate, thank you for your interesting, informative and inspiring points you made and it was a pleasure to meet you.
I seem to have been doing a lot of working to deadlines recently and a couple of weeks ago, I had a moment where I realised that all I was doing was just producing, producing, producing. I was feeling up against it and had lost my flow. I took the next day off to do something purely for fun and made a conscious decision to let go of the push to have x number of pieces done by x date. Since that day I have felt so much better and have noticed new energy coming into the work and miraculously I hit my major deadline - in a much easier, happier way. A good lesson for me. I’m now thinking more about what I’d like to work on rather than what I should be working on.
I'm very chuffed to have been shortlisted for the Rise Art Prize. I was one of 160 artists selected from 16,000 globally. I am in the running for the category finalists which will be announced in January.
This is the very cool email I found in my inbox this morning:
'I wanted to let you know that you have been shortlisted for the Rise Art Prize. We reviewed almost 16,000 submissions and chosen a handful (1% to be precise) of artists per region to be shortlisted. Huge congratulations from all the team. This means your work was reviewed by our expert regional judging panel and you are in the running to become one of our regional finalists. And there's a lot to play for. The final judging panel is looking very impressive, with names including Gavin Turk, Harland Miller, Fiona Banner and David Bailey.'
I'm very excited to have just been asked to exhibit with the Sister Gallery in Barnes, London. Francesca who runs the gallery has created a beautiful, light, modern space and I'm honoured to show my work here. The exhibition will run from 19th August to mid September with myself and one other artist. Details to follow...
I'm very pleased to see that I've just been featured in Saatchi Art's latest newsletter. A great start to the weekend!
I'm very pleased to have been selected to take part in the Art for Youth exhibition at the Mall Galleries in St James's, London. The exhibition will take place 13th-15th December, with 35% of sales going to the charity U.K. Youth. I'm excited and very honoured to be a part of it!
I've finally begun hanging for my Open Studio's this morning and I'm nearly there now thanks to the amazing help of Jane Bain, so I'm feeling relieved! Now I just have to do tidying, painting walls and cleaning. Then off to the Hampstead Affordable Art Fair this evening for the opening night!
I'm really excited to be teaming up with Kit & Ace, the very cool Canadian apparel brand. I have just had a meeting with them at the Borough store and have been asked to provide artwork and curate the wall space there for three months.
Kit & Ace are founded by the same family as Lululemon and have stores all over the world. I love that their business is based on integrity, morality and living life to the full. Do check them out!
Today I spent most the day wrapping paintings, which are being picked up and taken off to the Affordable Art fair tomorrow morning. I found a moment amongst the foam and bubble wrap to take a snap of this one.
Another of the pieces thats off to the Affordable Art Fair in Hampstead next week. If you're coming along, look out for The ArtDog Gallery stand and say hello to Pippa.
A new piece finished last week and back from the framers today. I'm currently gearing up for the Hampstead Affordable Art fair starting on 16th June - and I have quite a bit if work still to do - eekk!
This pic was taken at our Open Studio's last weekend - I love it with open door and the metal staircase in the background behind the painting.
This piece is called 'Wild Swimming' and has been brought by some friends of mine. I'm driving it over to their new house this afternoon and wanted to take a quick pic before it went!
Wow, I'm feeling very lucky today in that I have been featured on two blogs - cheekybillo.com and hellolovelyliving.com - both beautiful places to go and have a look around. I designed some PC and phone wallpapers which you can download - along with a whole load of others to choose from created by various different artists and designers. Thank you Ena and Stina so much for these awesome features.
I've just been to see a couple of my pieces up on the wall in this very beautiful kitchen space - thanks so much Miles and Andrea for letting me take these pics - they are looking fab!
I dropped these two off at their new home this week. They are going to look fab sitting on opposite walls in a super cool, very modern kitchen space. Can't wait to see them up!
I've just had a new batch of paintings delivered by my framer - always exciting! Here are two of them. The smaller one 'Stella' was sold about a year ago but has just had non reflective glass put in which looks fab.
Thank you so much Eyinmisan Harriman for this fantastic post on WhatWeSeee.com. For any one who hasn't heard of What We Seee, it's an amazing site sharing fascinating images and stories about all sorts of things. Its growing by the day and I think it's going to be big! - so do check it out: http://whatweseee.com/
