New Original Art - the Lost & Found collection

I’ve been working on a mini collection of illustrative art. The story behind these paintings stems from finding once again how much nature can help to restore and heal us when we are feeling lost and overwhelmed.

I chose the focal point of each painting as a place that helped me to feel calm, renewed and hopeful. The last few weeks have been a tough journey for many of us and yet even on the toughest of days, ten minutes down by the riverside with a cup of herbal tea, or a walk in the woods at the end of the road had the power to iron out the creases in our brows, and bring a sense of lightness to our moods.

Blue Yonder has a beautifully soothing colour palette and features a wild tangle of hedgerow that gives onto fields, a cottage and in the distance, and the sea. I haven’t seen the sea for months now, but it’s often on my mind and I recognise it to be one of the places that helps me to fully relax. This is very much a view from my imagination, the cottage offering a place of safety to retreat to, and the gentleness of the natural world surrounding it.

Blue shed on the allotment is a piece inspired by my own garden, and the wistful dream of an allotment of my own. I’ve always been excited by other people’s growing spaces, magical places where runner beans shoot skyward and sweet peas cover a rickety shed with colour and scent. Luscious green stalks of chard and the tops of leeks peek deliciously from the dark turned earth…I would love a retreat such as this, where things can be planted and grown in time with the seasons and the moon.

Twilight Song is a painting that came to me whilst I was upstairs in my house lighting candles around the bath and emptying in a good tonne of magnesium flakes and essential oils. The window was open, giving onto a surprisingly mild February evening that was dowsed in soft pink and saturated with the song of the blackbird. I stood by the window listening for a good while, and as the sky turned to a velvety dusk and the first stars appeared I visualised this painting. I think this is one of my favourite times of day, a gentle wind down when the rhythm of nature is so calming.

Each painting is created in acrylic on a wooden panel, and finished with mixed media elements. The sides of each panel are painted white and are ready to hang as is. I may add to this collection as I am really drawn to exploring this theme of lost and found in more detail.

The paintings are available in my store now, priced £175 each.