My Art Work 2019

2019 has been full of challenges, battles and negativity for us as a family.

It seemed that with every bit of good we got faced with something 10 times the negative.

It’s weird looking back on the year and seeing those moments and knowing that we were just trying to hold on.

I was keen though to find something for me, something I enjoy and try to use that to “reclaim" those areas that I lost.

Art has always been that outlet for me.

I find that I can get lost in the detail. I become absorbed in every mark that is made and often find that hours can fly by.

So, despite the hassle this year, I have managed to find time to sit and do my art work.


I started the year doing a painting for Ember. I wanted to do something that captured a bit of her. I worked with Purple (knowing it’s her favourite colour) and played with different shades throughout the piece. She also has a fascination with death and skulls so I tried to capture that in the piece.

7 and a half hours later I completed my piece called “Baptism into Death”.

I then did a piece for a friend at church. He is kind of our honorary “granddad". His year has been just as bad as ours where he’s been battling cancer. Sadly, he is now in palliative care and we will be looking to say goodbye to him in 2020.

However, I felt that I had an image for him in my mind. I remembered the scene for The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe where Aslan is resurrected and standing in the remains of a building. I felt it represented strength despite hardship; something that I have always admired about Malcolm.

This piece took 13 hours and I called it “As Bold as Lions".

Ember and her family have become our family. She is like a sister, her partner is like a brother to me and her daughters are like my nieces. Embers been great this year not just for us but the kids too so I wanted to gift something back to her girls.

I started a painting for Eva. She loved my lion piece for Malcolm so asked if she could have a lion too. However, I wanted to do something slightly different.

I decided to have a different tone of the fur and mane. I also wanted to capture leadership and independence.

This piece took 13 and a half hours and I called it “His Kingdom”.

This was the last painting I did this year.

With doing more artwork and wanting to focus more I thought I would buy myself some new graded pencils and some good quality blending coloured pencils.

I thought I would start and have a play around with the colours and attempt a cat for Ember's daughter Izzy.

I wanted to focus on the cats eyes and fur. The eyes needed to show some mischief behind them (if that was even possible) to suit Izzy. I also wanted to see if I could really get the pattern of the fur right and yet make it look layered with colours.

This piece took 13 hours to do and is called “His Eyes".

The next piece I did was for Hannah’s Uncle and Aunt for their 45th Wedding Anniversary in October.

I wanted to choose an animal that mated for life. A couple that could stand and show some relationship between them.

I decided to go with an Owl couple.

The piece took 10 hours and I called it “His cherished love".

Finally, I wanted to get back to playing and exploring what my coloured pencils could do.

I was watching a space programme with Brian Cox and he was discussing universes. I was watching these and it occurred to me that a swirling universe looked like a pupil of an eye. I thought I would draw one and see how it turns out.

This piece took just over 16 hours and ended up taking the longest time. The biggest challenge for me was to make the skin look like a normal skin colour from a distance but close up you could see every mark, shape and colour. It was far more complicated to do than the cats fur!

I’ve always created my art work with someone in mind and then given that piece away as a gift. Which, all apart from the eye, I’ve done with the above.

The comments from those who received it and those on social media have been really encouraging. So much so that Hannah has suggested that I spend 2020 creating as many different pieces as possible with the aim that by 2021 I have enough stock of unique pieces as well as prints to sell.

I’m incredibly worried about it but I suppose I won’t know unless I try! His Creations will launch in January!

So what do you think of the above pieces? Which one is your favourite? And, do you think I might have a chance in selling work going forwards?