Johnsons Island Artists Open Studios Exhibition

My 'hideaway' art studio on Johnsons Island is opening it's doors next weekend, Saturday 12th and Sunday 13th May, for two days of artistic delights, live music and creative inspiration. A little blurb on it below -

Johnsons Island is home to a flourishing colony of artists and crafts-people. Gazing at the shimmering canal waters from its eclectic collection of buildings it is easy to understand why.

Sculptors, painters, printmakers & artisans from this thriving community will be opening the doors to their studios over the weekend of 12th to the 13th May from 10am-6pm.

Nestled beside the first lock linking the Thames to the Grand Union Canal, one passes the Brewery Tap on Catherine Wheel Rd, before crossing a footbridge and entering into another world. History, art and nature are woven together in this unique island setting, as Samuel Pepys would agree when he sailed past for an illicit assignation with the Brentford lady in 1660!

Come and meet with the creators of such esoteric products as hard wearing and eco-friendly bicycle baskets and bags, the local mosaic artist who is showing her work at the Olympic Village View Tube, one of the artists who designs laser light shows around the world when not making unique prints or the paper and wire sculptor who has a two minute walk to her studio from her narrow boat home.

Freedom!

Cycling to my studio today after days of working on my other job I felt a most delicious sense of freedom!

Like a kid let out of school early coupled with the smug satisfaction of having worked really really hard, the reward earned, the contentment of a job well done filling me up, the eager feeling of the wind on my cheeks as I fly along the canal to paint in my hideaway world.

My other job is intense, fulfilling, a different rhythm to painting, demanding all of me for the time it calls. At times I resent it for taking me away from my paints. Today I am grateful for the different sense of perspective it provides, for taking me to the outer world and allowing my imagination to soar into other realms that I would not normally touch in my studio.

And I am grateful grateful grateful for my studio, my paints, my solitude and the swirling river that flows outside my window.

I have often wondered how to define happiness. Today happiness was my every breath.

a day in the studio

I am blessed to have many creative friends. One came and joined me for lunch and a spot of photography! She is so talented, I wanted to share...

my hideaway studio

Because the universe is full of grace I was one day gifted with a studio. Somewhere in London on the river, full of magic and ripples of light sent scudding across the water. Herons sit looking like old wise men and if I am very lucky I catch the blue opalescent flash of a kingfisher.

I wanted to share it with you - this magic space which enriches and inspires me.