Creativity is challenging - how do we stay on track and only listen to the critics that count?
Read MoreWentworth Falls, 90 x 75 cm, Oil on Canvas
Do More of What You Love.... Painting Workshops for 2023
I'm going to add to the words Do more of what you love and say also, Be more of who you love. With this in mind, I'm truly excited to invite you to join me in some new workshops that I have designed for this purpose.
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Upcoming Artist's Talk
Perhaps you are wondering why I start my paintings with bright acrylic washes, why I have so many paintbrushes, or how I work out what to paint next... These questions and more will be explored in my forthcoming artist’s talk.
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Transform the Way You See the World - Colour Painting Workshop
In this full-day colour immersion, you will acquire practical know-how on mixing and arranging colours, understanding warm and cool, intensity, hue and value, contrast, relationships and dynamics. By the end of the day, you will know how to lighten red without losing intensity or how to create a warm blue to vibrate next to a cool one. You will leave with a finished painting and a renewed experience of the world!
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Recent work in the studio, including a commissioned painting on the easel.
How do Anxiety and Uncertainty Birth Creativity?
Being creative is something most people want, but few of us feel confident about being. Confronting the unknown, with its accompanying anxiety, is the very birthplace of creativity…
Read MoreJoin Me to 'Capture the Spirit of Landscape'
My last workshop for the year is happening next month, 24 & 25 November. ‘Capturing the Spirit of Place’ will be a wonderful opportunity for you to learn new skills, meet like-minded people and have fun.
Read MorePainting Towards my Own Death
Lately I have challenged myself to get more embarrassed, uncomfortable, even scared - to stop using familiar methods and rather to explore uncharted tracks, that possibly lead nowhere in particular.
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One Day Soon... An Ode to Showing Up
Lately I have been thinking a great deal about whether I really show up - whether the person I seem to be to others, is in fact who I am. The words of a poem I read as a young girl, came back to me yesterday, ‘When I am an old woman I shall wear purple, with a red hat which doesn’t go, and doesn’t suit me’.
At the time Jenny Joseph’s ode to non-conformity tantalised and shocked me. Having grown up in middle-class South Africa, where being a good girl meant fitting in and following rules, I longed to ’sit down on the pavement when tired, go out in my slippers in the rain and press alarm bells’!
Thankfully there’s still time. I can be whoever I want to be, and I’m not waiting till I’m old. So…
One day soon I shall wear brilliant yellow,
With turquoise jewellery and gardenias in my hair.
I shall talk to the birds, listen to the wind
And dance along footpaths and in queues.
I shall play the bongos, sing without a care
And commit acts of gross generosity.
One day soon I shall love without caution,
Paint without restraint and live without fear…
What would you do if you showed up without reserve? I’d love to hear!
Given the approaching frenzy of Christmas shopping and preparations, I invite you take time for yourself, to write your own ‘One day soon…’
Understanding Your Child's Art Part 2
Do you wonder what to say to your child when he shows you his drawings? How to encourage your daughter as she gets frustrated with paint? Read this - it may just help!
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'Blueberry Tree', by my daughter aged 3
Understanding Your Child's Art
Do you understand what your child creates and why? What do you say and do to encourage him? As Picasso famously said, 'Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.
Read MorePainting and Pavlova
What do painting and cooking have in common? In my case, they are both sensual and courageous...
Read MoreEmbracing Your Training Wheels
Is being creative a gift given only to the select few? What does it do for us and can you choose to be creative?
Read MoreMy 98 Year Old Inspiration
Decades before the Mindfulness movement, my Gran taught me to pay attention to nature, to see and sense like an artist.
Read MoreIn an Elemental Whirlwind!
I'm on a high after exhibiting with the amazingly talented pianist, Elyane Laussade in Elemental Elegance!
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If you’ve ever felt stuck creatively, then this video might help! A quick reboot for your brain to access your creativity.