Artist at Work, Cambridge Library

The local council through their community Libraries hosts an annual ‘Artists at Work’ for the month of March. It was my pleasure to take part as a resident artist in the Cambridge Library in 2017.

I have always found it enjoyable to paint in front of others. I think you get lost within your own work sometimes that you don’t notice onlookers anyway. However, I found that the interest from the community to come and observe and ask lots of questions about technique and materials was an enlightening and encouraging experience. It reminds me again that art is never in isolation. The artist is always affected by outside sources, whether that is the landscape that they observe which inspires or the interaction of others.

I paint because I have images in my head that are a translation from how I see or experience the world. But my painting is not just for myself as a way of getting these images ‘out of my system’. I paint in the end because I want to share; I want my work to be seen. I want to build and grow as an artist from the interactions that I have with others. I hope too that my own impact on others might result in creative journeys of their own.