From the Studio & Garden: A Return to Painting

There has always been a quiet thread of creativity running through my life.

I trained as a visual artist many years ago, however when my studies ended and life moved on — work, family, responsibilities — my art slowly slipped into the background.

For a long while, I told myself I would return to it ‘one day’. I always felt it missing — a deep longing — but I never quite had the time or the headspace, and for a long time I didn’t create at all.

Even so, creativity found other ways to exist in my life — through floristry, my garden, and interior decorating.

Very slowly, I began painting again. A workshop here, a small piece there. It came gently — a quiet pull back towards stillness, and a desire to create something with my hands again.

Living here, surrounded by the Australian bush, I began to notice things more closely — the softness of eucalyptus leaves, the muted tones of the landscape, the quiet shifts in light across the hills.

It felt natural to begin again from there.

My work now is not about precision, but about feeling — small, quiet impressions of the landscape, softened through watercolour.

There is something deeply comforting in returning to painting in this way, without pressure. Just a gentle exploration of colour, memory, and place.

This space will become a place to share that process — the studio, the garden, and the moments in between.

Ren