MY CREATIVE ART JOURNEY

Thank you everyone for following me on my artistic journey - I am thrilled to have you along with me on my journey as I share with you my story, how it all began, my passions and inspirations, my artwork, my processes and my ideas......

HOW IT ALL BEGAN....

Today I will share with you how my creative journey began and what inspired me to take the courage to give up working within the IT sector and pursue a new career as an artist.

Up until only a year ago, I only painted for pleasure and as a hobby. I've always loved to paint and sketch, I would spend ages sitting on the beach sketching and painting the sea. However, I would sometimes look back at my artwork from years ago and think I would never be good enough to become an artist, something I’d always dreamed of becoming. So I stuck with what I knew I was good at and enjoyed.......water-sports.

As you will all know from my brand “Seascapes & Sails”, I am passionate about sailing, I absolutely love being in, on and under the ocean. I am also a qualified scuba-diver and have been diving around the world with my partner for many years. The sea has always fascinated me, I would always look at the formation of waves crashing, the myriad of colours reflected by the sun or moonlight, the driving winds, the constantly moving clouds above. When I go diving, I am astounded by the multitude of colours the deep sea and coral reefs has to offer. So, I am hoping you are beginning to get a better understanding as to why I paint what I paint and how I gain my inspiration through my passions - art, sailing and diving!

So my creative story all began early in 2019 when I commissioned an artist to paint a seascape for our bathroom. I had an idea in my mind what I wanted but unfortunately the artist was unable to complete this request. It was at that time that my partner said ....”well, if she can’t do it....why don’t you?!”

And so that’s how it all began.....

I created my first seascape in years and was overwhelmed with what I’d managed to achieve. It felt so natural and the energy I had within me to paint and to be creative was unreal!! From that day on, I couldn’t stop painting, I have now painted hundreds of seascapes. It was like I had a new lease of life, I discovered so much about myself.......

During this time, I have painted almost every day, I have not stopped learning, I have spent hours upon hours doing online courses, reading art books, attending workshops and courses by professional artists, discovering new techniques, experimenting with different styles of paintings, visiting art galleries and gaining inspiration from the great ocean artists of our time. It’s not all been plain sailing (excuse the pun :o)), I have made some mistakes along the way (whoops!), I have ended up being disappointed and often felt like a failure, to the point of giving up on the idea of ever becoming an artist. I can’t begin to tell you the number of canvases that have ended up in the bin.....But, with determination and a willingness to succeed, I continued to create artwork and never gave up trying to be the best I could be....

I have now built up a business and created a brand known as Seascapes and Sails that I am so very proud of. I have used the time to constantly develop my skills, experiment, explore and create artwork which has now sold through gallery representations, exhibitions, events, word of mouth and online platforms.

I've been so fortunate that this has worked out, to run a successful business and to have such a determination, passion and drive that I never knew I had.

I now operate Seascapes and Sails from my art studio at home (I'll post another blog all about my art studio at a later date), where I spend every day creating seascape paintings, working on commissions, exploring new ideas, responding to customer emails, working on my business goals and objectives and finding new ways to get my artwork widely recognised both in the UK and internationally.

You will see that my work is the result of my abiding love of the ocean which is expressed in my paintings. I hope I can lead you, my viewers, on a visual journey with my expressive, energetic style and emotional connection to the sea.

I hope to enhance people’s lives through my creativity, self-expression and inspiration to create art that I am passionate about.

So, this is my story so far. I really do hope you have enjoyed reading my first blog post and hope you will join me by following my future blog posts.

From IT geek to commercial artist!!......Have a good guess what I'm happiest doing :o)

Please feel free to comment and thanks so much for taking the time to read my story!

Samantha Louise x