We know you as the Project Co-ordinator of Community Arts Partnership’s TRASH Fashion Project but have you always painted?
I was very artistic at school and loved art from when I was very young. I used to watch my big brother paint and I wanted to paint like him. I was always kneeling down on the floor, using the settee as my table, drawing and sketching. I loved soft pastels, coloured pencils, Indian inks and paint.
At school I would get extra marks because I would add drawings to my essays. (That was my way of writing a little less). I would draw and paint portraits of Marc Bolan and Stevie Wonder for my friends and some would bring me the little black and white Photo Booth photos and ask me to copy them.
I was also inspired by my aunt Eva who made ballroom dresses. So when i was older, I was always drawing and painting fashion designs . My grandmother made quilts and I loved playing with her fabric scraps. I think this is where my love for fabrics and textures came from and eventually I moved on to fashion designing and making formal wedding and bridesmaid dresses and dance costumes.
www.last.fm/music/Marc+Bolan/+images/11ed8d53d9584eef9b5e47927a78828d
Did you keep painting and drawing alongside the work you did in Community Arts?
I didn’t paint for a long time because when you are working in the arts and you are co-ordinating projects, going out to lots of workshops, sometimes you let your own practice drop away. It sort of dissolves into the background. Maybe you lose yourself a little bit, because you are just very busy organising other people to be involved in arts and being engaged creatively, so you do have to fight to find space and time for your own work.
How do you come to painting again?
I was talking to a CAP artist, Tracey Crossan, (Sadly Tracey is no longer with us) and she said that I should just get a big art pad and start drawing and painting. She said to me that I shouldn’t wait, I should just get back into it.
The key moment was when I was working on a Covid project with Community Arts Partnership, where poets and artists were teamed up to work together. I worked with the poet, Shelley Tracey. I really enjoyed that project and that started me getting back into painting.
What happens after that project?
After that, I did an online course, first with Louise Fletcher, which then lead me on to Nicholas Wilton’s, Art2Life course for artists. I took these courses because I wanted to build my own confidence and I wanted to do something for myself. I didn’t have to opportunity to go to art college or have any art training, so I wanted to improve my skills, learn about the fundamentals of painting.
I learned all about technique and about materials, then each module went through the basics regarding painting, colour theory, composition, how to use particular paints, and mediums and everything just clicked. I found my tribe and my flow.
The course was a good starting point?
Yes, definitely, There are Facebook groups for both courses where you can upload your images and other artists would upload their images. There is plenty of help and encouragement and you get to connect with other artists from around the world. I love it.
