End of year reflections

It has been a wonderful year in many ways. When I was studying on my degree course I didn't imagine I would be in this position a year after graduating. Participating in many activities has enabled me to make new artist friends and other contacts. I have become part of exhibiting groups of artists and shown my work all over the UK. This month, December, a framed print of my painting Chance and Choices will be displayed in Miami Art Week in the USA! It will feature in an exquisite corpse with 59 other artists creating work speaking of social justice. Next year my calendar is already filling up with art-related activities and exhibitions. I am looking forward to seeing my work in new contexts, including the print travelling to Venice for the Biennale, which feels very special. I am planning to visit and see the work in situ as it is 25 years since I went to Venice and it is such a wonderful place.

My paintings have changed from the big rocks series to rhythm and flow but always with nature, and the landscapes I have visited, in mind. As my process is open and intuitive, political events and concerns about the environment come out in my work in an unconscious way. I am learning to trust this process more as it makes for interesting and unexpected work sometimes. Of course others who look at my paintings don't always see what I see and that is fine. I am always pleased when visitors make a personal connection with the work. Having Open Studio days when the market comes to Dean Clough has meant a lot more people have been able to see my studio and the work I have on the walls.  One outcome is fourteen of my paintings are now on loan and for sale in a private eye clinic in Bradley near Huddersfield, where they will be seen by even more people passing through for treatment.  Hopefully the colourful paintings will make the clinic feel more homely too, see some of them in place in the carousel on the left. It was also an honour to be invited to talk to Open College of the Arts students about Life after Graduation when they visited my studio for a workshop with tutor Bryan Eccleshall, in October. It was good to share my positive experiences with them.