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20<br />
I<br />
am inspired by all things beautiful,<br />
namely the elegant and yet goofy<br />
greyhound, my friend’s cat and<br />
practically anything with four legs. And<br />
more recently, Wanstead’s bluebells. My<br />
art was a way to relax from my stressful<br />
accountant’s day job. You could say I was a<br />
‘creative accountant’, though the creativity<br />
was strictly reserved for my art!<br />
Since being made redundant in <strong>April</strong> 2021,<br />
I have been fortunate to live my dream of<br />
becoming a full-time artist, which is wonderful<br />
and exciting. I opened an Etsy shop which<br />
started out featuring original, limited edition<br />
linocuts of greyhounds. Over the past<br />
few years, I have been revisiting different<br />
mediums, including screenprinting, which<br />
enabled me to produce ’functional art’ such<br />
as my Wanstead bluebell tote bags and a few<br />
prototype tea towels, which were on display at<br />
Wanstead Library last November.<br />
I have been a member of Art Group Wanstead<br />
for a few years now and took part in last year’s<br />
bluebell art fair, for which I created my first<br />
bluebell piece, an ambitious watercolour<br />
wash with a multi-screenprint printed onto<br />
gorgeous A3 handmade paper. Unfortunately<br />
– after my strict quality control – only a few of<br />
the planned edition of 30 escaped my studio<br />
recycling bin! All was not lost as I took photos<br />
of the survivors and created a new series of<br />
bluebell digital art.<br />
Wanstead Village Directory<br />
The iconic Wanstead bluebells are also<br />
the subject of my first series of artwork for<br />
<strong>2024</strong>. Having booked the Wanstead Library<br />
showcase for the end of February, I set myself<br />
a challenge to create new art using different<br />
mediums: oils, watercolours, acrylics, linocut<br />
prints and digital art.<br />
I wanted to create art that represents what<br />
the bluebells mean to me and the impact they<br />
have on the emotion and mood for so many<br />
locals who visit them. The bluebell wood<br />
is such a magical place and I, like so many<br />
others, have such wonderful memories of<br />
visiting them with loved ones.<br />
I worked throughout the sometimes wet<br />
and dreary months of January and February,<br />
looking forward<br />
to spring and new<br />
beginnings as the<br />
bluebells reappear and<br />
delight as they do year<br />
after year. I love the similarities<br />
between these delicate and yet resilient<br />
flowers and my other passion, the rescue<br />
greyhound. This may seem a very random mix,<br />
but to me, both are such things of beauty –<br />
they just need a little care and our protection<br />
to enable them to bring joy and wonder<br />
into our lives.<br />
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