Art Revival

Life often seems to get in the way of our calling. My spiritually inspired art stopped when I moved to the UK in 2003. Huge changes and adjustments come when moving countries and other things took over. This was not a bad time at all but a time of adjustment and my art took a back seat.

 

I didn’t touch a pencil or a paint brush for about 7 years. Luckily for me I got a job in the Art Department of one of our local colleges. For the first time in ages I was in the midst of a buzzing art environment. The smell of the paint and the excitement of students creating their art inspired me to pick up my pencils and brushes and start creating again. The thrill I had felt all those years ago at university returned.

 

Having left off art for so long I was nervous and unsure and thought I had lost the skills I once had. It took quite some time but as I did more and more art work I gained more confidence. I was surprised at how ‘rusty’ I had become. It is true that to be good at anything takes practice, everyday if possible. The talent lies dormant and is still there but has to be developed and nurtured all over again. This realisation was rather devastating at first but as I did more art work so the skills came back and on the positive side I amazed myself all over again at the fact that I could actually draw!! Over the next two years I spent all of my time working on commissions. All the work I took on was from word of mouth and calls received through the college by people wanting art work done. I was overwhelmed to know people trusted me enough to entrust very special and sentimental work to me.

 

I illustrated a couple of books as can be seen on the website. My very first book was a children’s book about a little Westie dog. I loved working on this and had such fun creating the character. The poem the customer had written was just wonderful and I loved enhancing the words with my illustrations. I had dreamed of illustrating children’s books way back when I was attending uni in America and finally my dream had come true. I needed reference photos to draw from and so asked a good friend of mine to get her little Westie to pose for me. He was a great model and even wore some reading glasses. He has since passed away but will be forever captured in my paintings. Creating a character and scenery purely out of my imagination proved far more difficult than I had anticipated. The actual creative process and production of rough sketches took many hours both in the research and sketching process before I was happy with illustrations. I did realise that I had significantly undercharged due to the amount of work involved. This did not upset me but made me realise the work involved and was a lesson in charging appropriately. This statement alone leads to quite a debate on charging. I did some phoning around and found that professional working illustrators in London charge thousands of pounds for artwork, especially colour. I had a struggle as to what to charge because, although I was working, I wanted the commissions and I know for a fact I would not have had any clients if my prices were even half of what they should be. I decided early on that I wanted the work rather than the money. I needed the boost career wise and wanted the discipline of having to draw whether I was in the mood or not. I learnt so much during this time and would have done the same again. The experience and lessons learnt plus the having my art work in print were worth the financial sacrifices as well as the long hours and many late nights working. The sense of satisfaction and absolute thrill of seeing my work in print was one of the most exciting moments ever.