Two Awards at the Hollybush Emerging Woman Painter Competition

Delighted to have been awarded the Susan Angoy Artist of African and Caribbean Heritage Award for Emergence and the Euan Millar Award for Abstract Art for The Colour Purple.

Emergence
The Colour Purple

And …… both pieces have sold!

Framing the Future

I am delighted to be co-curating “Framing the Future” an online ArtCan exhibition to mark International Women’s Day.

5th – 26th March 2022

ArtCan is hosting a Virtual Exhibition for International Women’s Day 2022. Building on ArtCan’s international membership and founding principle of fair pay for artists, the exhibition will focus on the incredible art our women members are producing.

Virual Gallery

ArtCan

I am enjoying my first taste of being a member of ArtCan.

Details of Artcan can be found on their website www.artcan.org.uk

You can also watch a video produced by my husband, Derek, as an introduction under their “Meet the Artist” programme:

Visit to Margate

Short break in Margate offered the chance to see two exhibitions:

1. Met  up with Emily Tull in the Turner Contemporary exhibition where we saw her stitched portrait of me which she completed at the beginning of Lockdown 2020. 

2.  Attended the Private view of the Carl Freedman Gallery:  “To all the Kings who have no Crowns” exhibition. The title aptly represents the seventeen self-taught and disabled artists chosen who, despite being skilled artists, are yet to receive the recognition they rightly deserve within contemporary arts. 


The gallery space is beautifully light and spacious. I met the curator, Jennifer Gilbert, who generously talked me through some selected works. Jennifer is passionate about creating awareness and gaining respect for these and many others.


This thought-provoking show is designed to challenge preconceived ideas, and to stimulate conversation and interaction. I had such an enriching time talking to several of the artists. I also had the fortune to meet the gallery Director and co-host of the celebrated podcast: TalkArt!

Two Private Views

“You use a glass mirror to see your face; you use works of art to see your soul” Bernard Shaw.

What a privilege it was to be invited to my lovely friend, Curtis Holder’s Private Viewing for his first solo exhibition:SOMETHING UNSPOKEN at 45, Park Lane!
It’ was a stunning exhibition where the highly intelligent portraits seem to own the hotel space – so magical! It’s fascinating to see the diaphanous, multilayered coloured portraits, created in a language of their own. As the brochures states: “He aims to evoke an individual’s unspoken truth, which he compels the to search for, and in doing so, reflect on their own perceptions.”
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“Artists working for other artists is all about knowing, learning, unlearning, initiating long-term artistic dialogues, making connections, creating covens, and getting temporary shelter from the storm. “Jerry Saltz


I was fortunate enough to attend the opening of Charmaine Watkiss’s first solo show, “The Seed Keepers,” @tiwanicontemporary in South Kensington. Her show is truly outstanding.I cannot express enough the joy I had from her important work. She tells stories through drawing figures of herself, using “traditional African cosmologies, and modes of kinship with the natural world”. There was so much to unpick in Charmaine’s drawing that I could listen to her for hours.


I find people’s journey into art fascinating and Charmaine Watkiss’s is just that! She is such an inspiration. She worked as a shoe designer for several years, studied film and spent time helping artists to make video, then worked for two decades as a digital designer. Only in 2014 did she decide to formally train as an artist, graduating from the MA Drawing programme at Wimbledon College of Arts in 2018. Now she’s given up the day job to become a full time artist and is on the selection panel for the @derwentartprize 2022! What an achievement!

Surrey Artist of the Year 2021

Presentation Evening

“Life isn’t about finding yourself.   Life is about creating yourself.”   George Bernard Shaw

I am absolutely thrilled to have been awarded the runner-up position for the 2021 Surrey Artist of the Year along with Sophie Artemiss who creates beautiful pop-up books. Sophie’s doing a limited edition run at the moment, so have a peek! (@sophie.artemis). Massive congratulations go to the deserving winner, Jessica Stroud who uses traditional stained glass working techniques , dating back to the 7th Century, but which are sadly dying out. Hopefully, the publicity which will regale her will encourage others to come on board; or at least to take interest. She is appalled that Sheffield, the only University offering a stain glass course had to close the course down this year because only two students applied. Preserving our heritage and its associated skills is so important.

I am so proud to have achieved so much in the short time I have been painting. Thanks to all those who supported me, the New Ashgate Team (@newashgate) for the opportunity, and especially to the Independent panel: Cllr. Alan Earwaker, the Mayor of Farnham, Caitlin Heffernan ( Surrey Artists Open Studios) and Tina Newton (Surrey Life Magazine) for making the final selection.

Note my favourite protea flower (the National flower of South Africa) in the bouquet. Because of the fascinating myth that it comes with and its one of a kind charm, the Protea flower is known to symbolise a beauty that stands out, embracing uniqueness and diversity, and also the boldness to create and accept inevitable changes. All bodes well! Happy Days!!!