Believe!

Happy New Year!

I've been enjoying hibernating and reflecting on 2015. It wasn't an easy year for me and I've been looking forward to starting over with a new plan for 2016. I've been working through some online courses and books on creativity ahead of this year's workshops. On my workshop, 'Rest with Nature' on January 23rd, we will be taking some time for  creative reflection so I though I would do some of my own.

Over Christmas I read Elizabeth Gilbert's 'Big Magic' which is a great reminder of the wonder of creativity and to tap in to the joy of it. It's got good advice for moving forward with your creative work and for riding out creative block. It linked in well with another book I read not long ago called 'Playing Big' by Tara Mohr which deals with how we can often hold ourselves back. In that, there are some exercise for helping yourself to move forward. When I worked through these, the mantra 'Believe in Yourself' kept coming to me. I will be using that as my affirmation for 2016.

Coming in to this year, I worked through Susanne Conway's 'Find Your Word' online course to find out where I should focus my energy this year. I came up with the word 'Believe'. I usually choose a word for the year and in the past few years they have been passive. 'Acceptance' is one that has popped up, usually about accepting my dual responsibilities of work and family. This year feels like a move forward. My word is more active and hopeful. It's about believing in myself and the roles I juggle and also about believing in my creativity and being present - filling my creative well and feeding my soul. And its about believing in the future and working towards some new goals. I'm going to take the time to write as I find that I connect to myself and my creativity when I write and I'm going to take some time away from home to get lost and find new places.

And as I reflect on the word 'Believe', I keep coming to the words, 'Leave Be'. I'm reminded of the prayer:

"God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference."

And so I am going to try to worry less, to stop battling with life and to be less hard on myself and to let it be.

Whatever you have planned for the new year, may 2016 be creative and fulfilling. x

End of Term

When you're self employed you have to make your own end of term fun. This year I took myself off to Yorkshire Sculpture Park for a dose of creative loveliness with my friend and mentor Fiona Pattison. She's helped me find my centre this year and reawakened my dreams.

I really enjoyed the Jonny Hannah exhibition. Part of the St.Judes collective who always inspire. It's well worth a visit if you need a destination over the Christmas holidays. Combined with a winter walk and a bucket of handcut chips. Just what I needed!

I've also had the Tom Frost exhibition at Stafford's Shire Hall Gallery recommended and the room of unimagined treasures that Mark Hearld has curated at York Art Gallery. Let me know if there's an exhibition that you are heading off to see.

Have a warm and creative Christmas, Helen.

Looking forward, looking back.

It strikes me that wherever we are on our life's path, sometimes just putting one foot in front of the other can be the hardest thing. You (I) can build an empire (ok, a small one) but if there's a break in the flow, it's hard to move forward.

Looking back at 2015 it has been a strange year. At the end of 2014 my health took a nose dive and so I started the year feeling very run down. Winter is a reflective time, but the time I spent with myself was full of negativity and I knew I needed to make some changes. I felt lost and blocked; creatively and spiritually. There's that balancing act in life of the relationship with yourself, and the outer relationship with family, friends and the bigger picture of the world.

I started working with a mentor, someone who could be a sounding board for a head full of conflicting ideas; someone who put me at the centre of the picture who would help me shape my life according to my dreams. And so started a journey towards more self awareness.

In connecting to myself again, I learnt to prioritise myself and to care for myself. I started to write and to use positive affirmations to fuel my heart. I took my life and looked at each and every part and I came to a renewed understanding of being me. I went back to my centre. And in that space I was able to see clearly. From that place I was able to write about who I am creatively, my inspirations, and about how I connect to life. I found a resilience and a determination to use the gift of my creativity. With the encouragement of my mentor, I wrote from my heart about my connection to nature as my life force. I need my garden, my chickens, the sunshine, the landscape. So many of us suffer from nature deficit disorder and seasonal adjustment disorder because we are so disconnected from the energy of the land. So my journey became a project to express my needs, to express where my art comes from.

Listen to an extract here.

The CD that arrived as a result of these writings surprised me! It wasn't what I was expecting! I feel vulnerable sharing it with the world, saying 'Hello, this is me; this is what life feels like for me.' And yet, I hope there is inspiration in my words for re-connecting with nature, both to our own inner nature, and to the miraculous beauty of the world. In committing my response to the seasons into writing, and then as recorded spoken word, I found a new respect for myself, my creativity and the power of nature to heal. If we could all spend time with nature, spend time creating from our hearts, honouring our humanity I really believe the world would be a better place. Taking the time to honour my own needs has certainly made me better.

I invite you to share my journey this year in the form of the spoken word CD that was born from my reflections. On the CD I talk about each season. I notice the small details of my world, I talk of colour and the footsteps towards becoming inspired to create my art. I invite you to visualise the seasons, to dream and to imagine. And then there are some simple tasks for engaging with the outdoors - walking, collecting, noticing. In calling the CD 'I am Nature' I wanted to remind myself, and others of our own uniqueness, and the need to honour that creative voice.

So, looking forward to 2016, I am focusing my workshops on nature as source and running a series of seasonal workshops called 'Inspiration from Nature'. My workshops invite you, at any stage of your creative journey to come and put a foot forward, to have a beginners mind, to empower yourself that you can, to reconnect with your creative spirit and nurture yourself. They can be bought singly or as a series of four that will share the building blocks of my mixed media art. I will also be running an art holiday in the Derbyshire/Staffordshire borders on the 9/10/11 of July. Called 'Back to Nature', there are three days of walking, sketching and mixed media collage workshops. There'll be a supportive, creative, beautiful environment, including an outdoor hot tub experience in the shadow of the dynamic hills that surround the farm. It's going to be fun, creative and utterly restorative!

I'm ending this year on a high. I'm rested and reinvigorated and ready for all that 2016 has to offer.  I hope you can join me at one of my events or exhibitions.

Wishing you a warm and creative festive season.

Helen
x

Harley Gallery Christmas Art Market 2015

It was a breezy weekend in a marquee at the Harley Gallery Art Market in Nottinghamshire. Run alongside Open Studios and an artisan food market and the usual gallery and garden centre on the Welbeck estate it's an established event that draws in large numbers of people even when it's blowing a gail! I was in fine company with fellow exhibitors such as  printmaker James Green, designer Eloise Renouf, jewellers Milly Moore, Helen Shere and Alys Power, textile artists Dionne Swift and Viv at Hen's Teeth amongst other talents!

A Year of Inspiration from Nature

I've been busy getting my workshops planned for 2016 and they are all available to book in my shop and Eventbrite page.

I've planned seasonally inspired workshops throughout the year that will share the techniques and ideas behind my mixed media landscapes. Designed to fit together to give you creative confidence and help you develop your visual language, the days can stand alone or be booked as a set of four.

Book all four workshops together and receive a gift of my 'I am Nature - Working with Nature as Inspiration' CD and a mini print from my range (RRP £25)

Spring Sketchbooks - Saturday February 6th 2016

Mark Making - Saturday June 25th 2016

Evoking the Seasons - Saturday October 1st 2016

Stitch techniques with Paper - Saturday November 12th 2016

Autumn Soul

On a grey, rainy November day, sat in my studio listening to the rain, it seems a long time since half term holidays last week. It seems to my sun starved brain a long time since walking in the Suffolk countryside absorbing the sweet, autumn sun. Walking out, away from the village of Long Melford, away from the horses in their fields, past the sheep and into the farmers ploughed land - I felt free. I packed my pockets with sloes. I collected acorns in their jaunty hats. I looked up at their Mother oak tree and felt comforted. I felt grounded and timeless at the same time. I walked without intention. I took some photos as reminders of place. I watched the light and drew the colours into my mind. And since then, back in the studio I have started a new series of work on landscape, and trees, and the time I spent meandering in nature is flowing on to the page in a way that seems to have escaped me earlier in the summer. I really do have an autumn soul.

You can see more images of my autumn journey on Instagram.

This is me!

This is me! Autumn is my favourite season. I love the rich colours. I'm trying to slow the year down, to take the time to be outside, to collect conkers and leaves and bring nature back to the studio.