A little bit of background
I have been on a journey ¨inside of me¨ since 2015. I took part in a self-development course that lasted 9 months. It was quite brutal! There were some hard-hitting questions and deep looks into how I behave. I was quite taken aback with some of the realisations I had.
The journey never stops.
Understanding myself, who I am as a worker, colleague, friend, daughter and since 2024, a wife. It has at times been very, very, confusing and I have been quite lost. So far I´ve figured it out and art has been a huge part of my personal therapy.
Art has been part of me since I was a child, even though I was more mathematical, I loved art. I´ve dipped in and out of it and during the 2015 course I started doing lots more, self-publishing a colouring book and creating a line of colour-in greeting cards. This was Hearts & Flowers and all about love. I started working on words and quotes and fonts and sayings with meanings, all for my joy than anything else.
During covid acrylics were my bliss. On canvas, wood, tree stumps, bottles and stones! I love silhouettes and one day started to do a little girl one. She lead to a little boy, then the two of them. I still did other stuff; geometrical patterns, trees, flowers and whatever took my fancy! Oh a phase of splash painting was crazy fun and messy. I went to an art class in 2025 and the teacher suggested I try the little kids in water colour instead, so I did!
It was my first time using water colours and they were so much fun! The way the paint spread in different ways – very uncontrollable and unpredictable. I loved it. I googled images to use and designed some kids in various ways, adding animals with them and it grew and I had so many ideas!
I had stopped working full time in the Easter of 2025 and started working through the book The Artist´s Way. It is a suggestion/requirement to do 3 pages of writing – the morning pages. As I started to clear some crap from my mind, more and more little kid thoughts came up. Then one day and I have no idea why, I drew a little one with an umbrella and the phrase ¨Be sunny inside even when it´s raining¨ came up. Well on I went with more ideas, mostly all based on my personal thoughts and life story and learnings.
I painted 50 of them, all with different messages and I have at least 50 more to do! I added my words/insights and a little poem (sort of poem!!) and some ponderings; questions to ask oneself. What to do with them though? I began making the character bigger, no words, just a painting of the little girl with a balloon or 2 or a heart balloon. She was cute but not ¨right¨. I took it a step back and revisited the original I had found… MUCH better!
I went back and redid ALL 50 of the little ones – I know right! It was enjoyable though and I realised how much my skills had improved over time. It is so easy to not realise and appreciate our growth and improvements. On it went into the character (me really) with words and then a little boy too. Different colours, different words. All with the same intention.
