A Sand Painting Customer

Tags

Art, art commission, emotive art, painting commission, painting people

The main reason that I continue to paint my Sand People is knowing that some viewers do really connect with them on a very personal level.

The work that I produce illustrates the very basic human form.  I neglect to add features,  I don’t emphasis their sex.  The figures vary in height and they are often painted in different colours.  I try very hard to leave the work open to interpretation and so each painting is drawn simplistically.

I choose the titles with the intention of bringing out the viewer’s own meaning, or to indicate one’s particular conception of the work.

It is always a very special time for me when I get to meet my customers, especially when they tell me the reasons why they were drawn to one of my pieces.

About a month ago, I had an email from a gentleman called Tim. The email was so lovely that it really made me feel that painting really is my calling in life (without trying to sound too much like a hippy).

Below is his email:

Hi Abigail

We (my wife Karen and I) visited Ludlow recently to celebrate our silver wedding and stayed at Fishmore Hall. We were knocked out by your artwork on display at the hotel. Each picture had something to convey. We particularly liked ‘Beauty Within’ which for us summed up our relationship over the last 25 years.

We would be so happy to have it hanging in our living room as a constant reminder not just of our trip to Ludlow but our life together and so I thought I just had to contact you.

Many thanks

Tim

A couple of weeks after I had received Tim’s email he contacted me to let me know that he would be coming to Ludlow to secretly purchase the painting for Karen.

We met at Ludlow Food Centre where we sat discussing the painting over a quick coffee. Tim explained to me how close Karen and he are and how when they saw the painting at Fishmore it immediately meant so much to both of them.

We discussed his interpretation of the painting and he wanted to know what inspires me to produce my Sand People paintings.

I explained to Tim, that for me, my art is my therapy and each individual pose of the figures reflects how I feel at the time that I paint.  An example of this; almost as soon as I had met Heath I started to paint couples and babies.  My mother pointed out to me at the time that I must be going through a broody time and that I really ought to stop painting babies otherwise it might scare Heath away.  I seem to remember Jackie, Heath’s mum, commenting to Heath that she thought I might be broody as there were sand families all over the house.

Tim requested for me to pick the painting up with him from Fishmore Hall.  We arrived at the hotel and Tim and I were both greeted warmly by the hotel staff and we were led through to where the painting had been very carefully wrapped up. The staff made the experience very special for Tim, and for me as I was able to see first-hand how my customers are treated when they collect a piece of my art.

The purchase experience couldn’t have been smoother.

We said goodbye and the next morning Tim sent me a text message to let me know that he had managed to secretly hang the painting on the wall and Karen was over the moon when she walked into the living room and saw it there.  It was such a great feeling to know that this particular painting had not only connected with one person but two people, who are tied together by love and they are now in love with a painting which I have produced.

Tim very kindly sent me the following text and images:

Hi Abi

I just wanted to say thank you so much for meeting me on Friday. It was really good to meet you and get to know the person who had created all that fantastic art.

You are probably wondering what Karen thought of her surprise  Well she was absolutely delighted with it as I am sure you will have guessed. I managed to smuggle it in to the house on Saturday morning and hang it in pride of place over the mantelpiece before she got up. You should have seen her face when she laid eyes upon it!

When we met on Friday we discussed how certain works stirred different thoughts and emotions in people. As you know Karen and I were visiting Fishmore Hall to celebrate our Silver Wedding Anniversary. We had half an eye out for something to buy as a memento of our visit and indeed our life together. Your art work immediately struck a cord with us, especially ‘Beauty Within’, a picture of a couple embracing. For us the picture portrayed a man and a woman who are very much in love and who care for each other deeply. A couple who feel secure in each others arms. This perfectly reflects our relationship.

All our friends who have seen it have commented on what a wonderful piece it is. I admit I was a little apprehensive beforehand as I have never purchased a piece of art before (and certainly never spent that much money!) but as soon as I put it up I knew I had done the right thing!

Once again – thank you.

Regards

Tim

Painting title: ‘Beauty Within’, painted by Abigail Humphries.  Copyright Abigail Humphries.  Some text and photos courtesy of Tim & Karen.

Who Buys My Artwork?

Tags

Art, art purchase, Ludlow, painting, sand art, Thinker

I often wonder what the people are like who buy my work.  To me my paintings become babies and to part with them can hurt.  After spending so many hours putting love into each individual painting they become very much a product of me.  I then wonder who would buy something that is in essence ‘me’.  This is very much an issue that I have to fight with when marketing my artwork.  If these paintings are ‘me’ how do I promote them?  How can I promote ‘me’?

So, who are these people and why do they like my work?

When I first started producing my Sand People paintings I set up a craft stall in my home town of Ludlow, Shropshire.  As I stood at the stall I would watch people walk by and I was fascinated by my customers.  There was a real 50/50 split between men and women.

The men would come to the stall mainly on their own and would buy the work for their loved one, as the themes were couples and groups of people (possibly families or whatever they imagined them to be).  A number of men bought the larger paintings which I often produced of lone figures – I found this really interesting.

The women would often be with other women and would say that the painting would look great in which ever room and would buy based more on the number of figures and the aesthetics of the piece.  I was intrigued how the men would spot the piece that they liked and within seconds would buy it, whereas the women tended to select the piece that they liked and would then browse the stall for a further few minutes before coming back to buy the painting.

Ludlow market is in a beautiful setting and the buildings around it all add to the character and charm.

On one occasion a lady came to view my work, she bought one or two pieces and then she vanished.  I had commented to my mother who often helped me, what a lovely person this lady seemed to be.  I went through a phase of not having the stalls because the weather was too bad and then personal events took over.  When I returned to the market a year or two later the lady appeared again.  She said that she was glad that I was back and that she had looked for my stall whilst I was away.  She bought a painting of a lone figure ‘The Thinker’ and commissioned a large version of the painting.

Above: This is not the actual painting of the lone figure but it is similar.

Roisin (the lady at the stall) and I are now really good friends and I have had the privilege of seeing ‘The Thinker’, my large painting, in situ. It is in a stunning flat next to Tower Bridge in London.  It turns out that the painting wasn’t for her, but it was for her partner.

Roisin’s partner, Reza lives and works in London.  This painting was bought as a calming, relaxing painting for him to hang in his office and for him to look at and self reflect with.  The reason why she bought it for him was because she loves him –  this is the reason why anybody buys my work… because there is love in the work and the love gets passed around.

The people who buy my work are all different but love is the connection between the people who buy it.  There are all sorts of figures and relationships between people in my work. This is what my aim is, to produce work that connects for whatever reason.  I want my work to be emotive.

Roisin has not only turned out to be a really good friend but she also believes in me and my art.

I had an anonymous sale of a couple of large paintings which were hanging at Fishmore Hall a few months ago and it turned out to be Roisin.

Above: This painting is one which Roisin bought.

I went back to the hotel to put up some new labels a few weeks ago and a lady stopped me and said that the painting above was her favorite one and she was devastated that it had been sold. I told her that it had gone to a loving home.

Mud Rock Bowl & Plates

Tags

Art, Canvas, childrens' art, childrens' painting, Colour, Paint, painting with family, Visual Arts

This isn’t my usual type of art but when my step daughters to-be are with us we often have a go at various art projects, plus I sometimes need a change in order to gain new inspiration for my Sand Art.

Ellie and Georgie haven’t had the chance to paint them yet, but as you can see my mum’s dog Abbey decided to make a start with Ellie’s plate.

I can imagine the paw print turning into a flower or something along those lines, but what I love about children’s art is that you can never predict what they will produce.

Georgie’s plate is white at the moment but she has big plans for it!

Going back to my comment about not being able to predict what children create is something that fascinates me and always has.  It is their innocence and imaginations which haven’t been tainted and therefore their creativity can simply flow.

Over the years I have found that I have to try to switch off from daily chores and responsibilities in order to paint, whereas nine times out of ten a child can be anywhere in the house, or outside and they will have the ability to create something magical.

A while ago, I was having a stressful time with work and things were really full on.  I had a painting that I just couldn’t get right.  It was dull and pretty much reflected my mood at the time.  I put it in the garage and didn’t touch it for months and in the end I handed it over the Ellie and Georgie and said that they could use it to paint over if they liked.  They jumped at the chance because to them this wasn’t a dull uninspiring painting, to them it was their blank canvas and not only was it a blank canvas to them, it was also a ‘big’ blank canvas and they love big canvases! After about 2 hours they had totally transformed the painting and it became a happy, colourful piece of artwork, which we are all proud of and it now hangs pride of place in our hallway.

Above: This is the canvas almost as it was originally, except originally it didn’t have the white geese (oh, and yes that is a bunny you see before your eyes), below: the canvas nearly finished.

Ellie, Georgie and Clara are constantly inspiring me.

A Weekend of Inspiration

Tags

Art, mother and child, my family in art, painting, painting my family, Sand, sand art, Sand art and play, Wales

Sometimes I find that I need to get away from home in order to get new inspiration for my painting.  My fiancé, Heath and our baby, Clara spent the weekend in Aberdovey, Wales which did wonders for my inspiration.

Wales is such a beautiful place and full of mother earth’s natural charms.  But what I found even more inspiring than the place was being able to spend quality time with my family.  It was the first time that Heath and I have been able to get away even for a short break since before Clara was born.  Clara was a little star on the trip and despite being eleven months old she was such great company and so much fun to be with.

The paintings that I produce very much come from my own personal experiences, encounters, and feelings that bubble up and come to the surface at various high and low points.  The weekend away unlocked something so powerful and I had no idea where it had come from.  I learnt for the first time what it really, really feels like to be a mother.  Of course I know what it feels like to hold my baby and know that she is ours and love her and cherish her but this was very different.

I had totally relaxed for the first time in ages.  There was something about the sea breeze, the fact that we weren’t in a rush to be somewhere, even the fact that we were able to sit and eat outside in the evening – Clara safely tucked up in the tent and we could hear her breathing behind us.  There was something so raw and deep about our time together that I was able to access parts of my soul that had been locked away and put on hold.  I discovered just how much I loved our baby and just how much I loved Heath, not only for who he is but for giving us the most incredible special little person in the world to nurture.

My art is sand art and to see Clara playing on the beach in the sand was especially exciting.  Before she had even touched the sand she watched it as we carried her to our chosen spot on the beach.  Her eyes were huge as always but this time there was obvious confusion on her face.  Heath took out the bucket and spade and proceeded to build Clara her first ever sand castle.  She didn’t put her hands out at first but simply watched Heath as he finalised the filling of the bucket. He then very carefully turned the bucket upside down and then lifted it away from the damp moulded sand.  She loved it.  She was still very curious but within seconds her hands went out in front of her and she began scooping the sand and creating an entirely different sculpture of her own.  If I moved her hand she would simply put it back to where it was and start scooping again.

Seeing the excitement and the way that Clara was with the sand inspired me in another way too.  What I saw was the novelty and the look on my baby’s face when she first spotted the sand.  The texture so different to anything that she had ever touched before.  Sand is fun to play with, it is formed naturally and the thought of sand floods me with the most amazing memories of holidays from the past.  Holidays throughout my life; as a child with my parents, as a teenager with friends and now with the family that I have created.

My batteries have re-charged and I’m now ready to create my next painting!

http://www.thesandartist.co.uk

https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/SandArtist?ref=si_shop

Why paint & take photographs?

Tags

Art, Graphic design, Photograph, Photographer, Photography, sand art

As a child I didn’t have a camera but I did have an imagination and a natural eye for composition.  I would spend most of my time in my room painting and was happy with my own company.

Again at school we didn’t have the option to do photography but I remember seeing a darkroom in my art teacher’s back room.  It was like a secret room that only special people could enter which made it all the more appealing.  She said that one day I would be able to develop a photograph in there – I never did.

At college I chose to do photography, art, art history and media studies – all subjects that I loved with real passion.  Photography was totally new to me and opened up a whole other world.  I now looked with my eyes in a totally new way and it was exciting to be able to capture moments in time as photographs.

At University I chose photography over painting.  I did however do a foundation year which covered art history, drawing, painting, photography and sculpture.  The foundation was brilliant, incredibly varied and so much fun.  I would very often make sculptures and remember once walking home with a man slung over my shoulder who was nailed to a chair and covered in latex (he wasn’t real).

The remaining three years of my Uni course were entirely focused on photography and the history of photography.  It was the most fun that I had ever had.  We would be given a subject title and a brief and would be sent off for a day or two so that we could produce our images.  Then we all came back together again to have our critiques.

The critiques were fantastic.  A group of like-minded, creative people (photographers) sat in a room and bouncing ideas off each other.  The adrenaline was incredible.  I knew that I wasn’t a bad photographer , in fact I knew that I was pretty good but there was always one thing that was in the back of my mind that bugged me.

Photographs Captured

I felt like a cheat! I spent the whole of my University course dreaming of things to photograph the next day, and creative projects that I would later embark on.  And no, before you start thinking that I was on something, I wasn’t.  I may have gone out and had a few drinks with friends but that was it.  I loved my course and worked incredibly hard whilst I was at Uni.  I wanted to leave with a 1st Class B.A. honours degree and as far as I was concerned that was my goal and I was not going to fail.

I would have the most incredible, vivid dreams and I didn’t have to think hard to remember them, they were there ready and waiting for me to pick up my camera.  In my dreams I would very often find myself inside a photographer’s gallery and would walk around it taking in the photographs, absorbing every tiny detail from each individual image.  I  was eventually so trained at dreaming that I could wake up from a dream and send myself back to the same dream.

What I did notice was that in times when I was stressed my dreams would stop.  I would wake up even more upset and would try to go back to sleep desperate to  be shown the way.

I did leave Uni with a 1st Class honours degree and was chuffed but at the same time I still felt as though part of me had cheated.  I had a sense of guilt as though I had copied even though it was in fact myself whom I had copied from.

Photography Jobs

Post Uni I searched for photographic jobs only to be told time and time again that I was “too qualified but not experienced enough”.  What had I worked so hard for?  What was the point in putting my heart and soul into getting a 1st when it wasn’t what employers wanted?

I ended up moving back in with my parents.  To me I was a failure.  From the high of getting the best grades at Uni, to working in various factories and temping in non-related jobs – what was going to become of me?

I ended up working as a temp at a furniture company – now that’s another story and one best left for another time…  After 4 years there I had to leave in order to get my life back on track.  It was a very low time in my life and my creativity was totally dead.  I had not one dream that I could remember in over three years.  I had recurring nightmares and they were very scary!

My mum took me on holiday to Egypt, just the two of us, mainly so that I could re-think where my life was heading.  Our resort was bombed and we ended up back at home and in shock.  The following day we were woken up by a TV crew at the door.  This is where the next chapter of my life started…

Back to Photography

I was interviewed by TV crews and our local newspaper the Shropshire Star.  Whilst being interviewed the photographer mentioned that they didn’t have many photographers… I found my next job.  I was back to my photography.  I found my calling and I realised at that point that out of bad things good things come too.  It was a tragedy what had happened in Egypt but I could now start to heal my wounds and with luck other people’s too.

I worked as a photographer for the newspaper and my creativity returned.  I would dream, I would have nightmares too but at least my dreams had returned.  I enjoyed being at the newspaper as I regained my confidence and ability behind the camera but I knew that it wasn’t for me.  I quit and applied for two jobs, one as a publishing assistant and the other as a youth worker and got both.  I also started up my own photography and art business at the same time.  I was flat out and doing everything that I loved doing!

I am still at the publishing company eight years later but during that time I have managed to mould my role into something much more suited to me.  My job title is now Design & Media Manager.  I sadly quit the role as Youth Worker mainly due to lack of time.

As Design & Media Manager I get to use my photographic skills, art and design and computing skills all of which I love and thrive from using.

My Love

Now this is where I take you back to my days at University when I felt like I was a cheat.  I have realised now that I am meant to be a photographer and above all an artist.  Alongside my career and over the past eight years I have been building up my Sand Art practice.

My paintings have been really important to me in terms of being my own personal art therapy and luckily other people have connected with them too and they are selling well too (www.thesandartist.co.uk).  But above all what I have noticed is that I am having my creative dreams again.  To me this is now normal and reassuring.  I also know that the time to change my path in life is the next time that my dreams stop!  I no longer feel like I’m a cheat but instead feel very lucky.

 

Above: An original Sand Painting by Abigail Humphries.

When times are tough I hit the paint bottle!

Tags

paintings, sand art, sand artist

 

It is such a great feeling to be able produce a piece of art and to feel proud of it… and then for someone to actually like it, and to buy it.  I put so much of ‘me’ into my artwork – my feelings and emotions, blood, sweat and tears. I often feel that my paintings are so personal that they can only possibly talk to me.  When I am then informed that somebody has bought a particular painting I am often amazed, not because I don’t like the painting that I have worked so hard on but mainly because it was produced by me and to be honest, for me.

I am not an artist who can paint with an audience in mind and alter my style accordingly.  I paint for the love of painting and I really feel the work deeply in my heart so much that sometime I obsess over it.  Each painting is carved and sculpted out of the various thoughts and feelings that I once had at some point in my life.

I hope that others like/love my work, of course I do, but I believe that unless I utterly love my work nobody else will.

I have had so many people who tell me narratives of my work and put their own take on each piece and that is exactly what I hope for, that each one of us will create our own stories and will feel our own feelings when viewing the paintings.

I paint out of my own personal love of art but I also hope that maybe my work can bring a little pleasure, healing, love, happiness and much more to other people too.