What Now?
New year optimism, plans and goals. Can I top 2025? Who knows. Here's what I'm doing to move forward from a very good year.
Keeping the Dreams
Moving forward from a big success can actually be harder than achieving the success in the first place. When you’re working towards something, the determination to strive for it is the driving force. But what do you do if you actually get it? Now that I have the much coveted RHS Gold Medal, what now?
Takeaway Tips
Be open to new opportunities:
The RHS Exhibition can invite a lot of attention, and the medal winning artists are always noted. Opportunities don’t always follow, but if something interesting does arrive in the inbox, don’t immediately dismiss it. Make further enquiries and keep the conversation going.
Create your own opportunities:
In such a media driven world you have to be very proactive in getting seen. Instagram for me has been a huge driver of getting my work ‘out there’. Regular posts, videos and updates in stories keep the conversation moving.
Get ready.
Exhibition season starts early so be ready. It can be tempting to take break after a success, but this is exactly the time for action! During the summer I did take a bit of a break from the studio to catch up with friends and family. I didn’t think about work at all, but kept my mind open to ideas. Now that the spark has returned with a new idea, I’m working on new pieces for 2026.
A New Era - The Memory of Place
As 2025 comes to an end I feel like I am entering a new era. My own work is still evolving with new directions and themes blending with old favourites. It’s an exciting time.
My newest piece is, ‘The Gift. This small painting is only 25 x 25cm but she holds so much quiet emotion. The story goes that one morning I found a single Rhododendron flower sitting on a bench in the garden. It was perfectly fresh but with no sign of how it arrived at its final destination it was as if it had been left as a gift by some unseen hand. At the time I was going through the turmoil of our flooded home, and the simple presence of a beautiful bloom waiting in the sunshine was enough to get me through that day.
‘The Gift’ (2025) watercolour on Arches 300gsm paper 25 x 25cm
Part of ‘The Memory of Place’ Collection
What is ‘The Memory of Place’?
Sometimes a project can deliver itself without you really having to think too hard about it. ‘The Memory of Place’ will be a very personal collection of new paintings in response to the feelings of home and the emotion of saying goodbye to a childhood home.
Although I moved out of my family home at the age of 23 when I got married, my parents have lived in the same house for over 50 years. It’s the only home they have ever really known together, but now it’s too big for them to manage and the decision has been made to move. A lifetime of memories, old toys, and lost things finally found have made us laugh and cry together, and many things will have to be let go. Including the garden.
The garden. A typical London garden. Not big, overlooked by towering trees, often difficult to manage but a place of joy. Saying goodbye to the garden is going to be difficult, especially for my dad. Even my visit last weekend included a certain amount of digging out of precious roses. Roses are not always easy to transplant but he just can’t leave them. As we finished I was overwhelmed by the high number of other potted up favourites and cuttings, all carefully labelled and ready to go. A botanical archive in themselves. Once in flower, these plants will be recorded and preserved in watercolour forming, ‘The Memory of Place’ Collection.
The quiet, shared ritual of careful transplanting brought back many memories of a childhood me constantly ‘helping’ my dad in the garden. My small hands trying to copy the well practised exercise of planting seeds and taking cuttings not always successfully. And here we were again. The memory of place can be overwhelming when we ourselves are deeply rooted. Almost as deeply rooted as the roses.
‘The Memory of Place’ (2025)
Watercolour study of a rose hip (unknown variety) on Arches paper 32 x 25cm
Part of ‘The Memory of Place’ Collection
Next time. More on ‘The Memory of Place’ and the stories behind the newest paintings for the project.
J x