About the Artist
Inspiration for my art comes from many different sources.
For my watercolour and canvas works, it’s the smell as the summer season comes to an end or the green/yellow of the leaves as sun travels through them which makes me want to paint. Or the crunch of frosty grass.
Day to day I express my creativity by collecting fragments of the passing time, adding to my memory box. Oh, how much it carries in such small four walls, living under my bed.
Drawing has followed me through all stages of life. I remember drawing animals for my family members as a little girl, and my most significant memories of being with my grandmother often include me showing her my latest picture. She always proudly displayed them in her kitchen and told her other visitors about her granddaughter the artist.
During my Alevels, I experienced a bereavement and covid lockdown which really took a toll on my mental health. The isolation was no longer only internal, it was external too and I thought that not even art, something which had saved me over and over again, could reach me. Until I turned my Photography alevel into an expression of my grief, studying each stage, using mixed media.
Another perspective linked to this was working with dementia. I began working here because of the same loss mentioned above. During my time there, I would draw some of the residents while doing activities with them and occasionally picked up some requests from family members and colleagues. Portraiture had always been something I wanted to master (the perfectionist in me) but I soon realised how naïve it was to strive for perfection in humans - we aren’t perfect. We have marks and wrinkles and freckles and asymmetry. I learnt that capturing someone isn’t always about a replica. Here is where I began to let go of the rules and regulations around art and its meaning.
I think this chapter of portraiture came to an end shortly after I returned from travelling in Thailand, where I focused more working on canvas using acrylic for landscape painting. This has always been a fall-back option for me, as if I could fall into the rolling oceans appearing on the canvas, and float away. These tend to be rich in texture, colour and mark-making on a larger canvas scale.
However, every year, as the seasons change and the weather turns wetter, drawing animals has habitually become part of my ritual, whether they were for fun or for friends or family. And this is where I find myself now, taking the big step, to share my art with the intention to be as environmentally friendly as possible whilst doing so.
I capture animals and nature in my art, so I feel bound to protecting my muse.
So, a final message from me. Without the support of my friends, whether they have requested drawings or just encouraged me in any form, my mum - who has taught me I can do anything, and Fay Lai, an extremely talented Artist, Photographer, Mother, Horsewoman and accomplished Dressage rider; the motivation to pursue this avenue wouldn’t have been possible.
And without you, customers, it wouldn’t be possible. Thank you for supporting a 20-something year old girl with a passion.
Wendy