Something new is here, and it is exciting for so many reasons...

I've spent all year creating things just for me, and now I'm thrilled to share them with you

Patreons will already know that this year has been a biggy! I’ve been working behind the scenes on so many different things, giving myself the space and freedom just to create - ceramics, wax casting, textiles (more on this soon!) and the real big one for me was to work outside of my sketchbooks, something I’ve NEVER been able to do. Even at Uni, I couldn’t make final pieces of artwork (one day, I’ll dig out the painting I did of these chickens, which, at the last second, I added a lime green watercolour wash background to and then had to submit it for assessment because it was the morning of submission - yes this memory haunts me!)

But after months and months of trying to work on paper - I did it! This year, I moved out of my sketchbooks, and oh, it is a true joy to share that this new work will become limited edition prints. The first one was released this week, “New Beginnings”, and is only available until the 11th of September.

I’ll be honest: moving away from the sea last year (I used to live minutes from the coast path in Plymouth) felt nerve-wracking. I said to Phil, “But we’ll move back, right? I need to be by the sea”, although a tiny part of me still wants that sea view (who doesn’t?) I can’t quite describe how I feel about where we now live. (Me and Phil actually think I might have a type of synesthesia because the only way I can describe this feeling is warm and round.)

It is so quiet here, and full of nature. I've woken up to woodpeckers, seen deer, bats, jays, hedgehogs and at the moment we have a resident owl who we haven't seen, but we have heard hooting at night.

Moving house really felt like a new beginning. Its not been the easiest few years (read more about that here), but this new beginning in my personal life has naturally fed through into my artwork, too. As soon as I moved my work changed, I started letting the nature around me feed into my work, and it felt like it was always meant to be, inspiration flowed onto the page, as if it had always been there, just waiting for me to make that first step.

I've started bringing together bits I've drawn on location as well as photographs that I take on the daily dog walk and creating compositions which have narrative to them. I plan ideas in my sketchbook and then use mixed media to make these peices, which are sort of observed and sort of imagined. Like I'm taking you on one of those dog walks and showing you all the things I've seen, or heard, or felt whilst walking.

This week I launched a new limited edition print, "New Beginnings", only aviable until the 11th of September.

You can imagine how much this means to me, its not just new beginnings in my personal life but like I mentioned its new beginnings for this new found love of working on paper, for these new surroundings, for realising I am my work and the work is me.

I know New Beginnings will connect with so many others too, who are also taking those first steps into new journies in their life, wether that's personally or creatively

I would love to know more about the New Beginnings you’re experiencing.