It always comes down to watercolour

For me, as an artist, it always comes down to watercolour. From the moment when my dad bought me a beautiful box of watercolours in 1990, when I was fifteen, it’s the medium I always return to. I’m forever grateful to my dad for starting me on this enchanting journey.

It enthralls and captivates me, and is the only medium that keeps me coming back for more. Yes, it has its challenges, but maybe that’s part of the excitement… the unpredictable spontaneity of watercolour never bores me. When I sit down to paint in my little studio, I never quite know what is going to happen on the paper that day, what webs of watercolour magic I can weave with this spellbinding medium. It’s just a colourful palette of paints, a brush, a sheet of paper, and my imagination.

Like everyone else, recent months have been a hectic juggle of busy-ness, with challenges with mental and physical health in both myself and the loved ones around me. In the ‘public’ front of exhibitions and social media I may have been somewhat quiet, but throughout everything that life throws at me, watercolour painting has been a source of comfort and joy every single day. It's kept me connected to that vital creative part of my soul, and I’m so excited to be back in a place where I’m looking outwards with my art career. I’m creating new paintings to exhibit, and my diary is filling up with dates of exhibitions, open studios and teaching opportunities in 2025. It’s so uplifting to finally add things to my news page of my website!

I felt compelled to start this blog, rather whimsically named ‘The Magical World of Watercolour’ (which was the title of my first blog over on blogger some thirteen years ago!), but for me this title is perfect. Watercolour is magic, and has provided me with a world of creativity I could never have imagined when I opened that first set of paints so many years ago, a world where every day in my studio is a joy that I also want to share with others with enthusiasm. Magical indeed!