Latest Work
Nelson Mandela Study
I felt inspired to paint this Acrylic Pointillage style portrait of Nelson Mandela after recently reading his autobiography.
My Journey
I started painting again during the pandemic.
I needed a release.
I am a proud mother of three grown-up children, who are all happy and well.
I had been a business woman in media, events and publishing for more than 25 years, and set up businesses in three continents, but I had got to that stage in my life where the corporate circus no longer held appeal.
I wanted to return to a more holistic and personal way of life, one closer to my core values and quite simply ME!
I also strongly desired to give back more to society. As serendipity would have it, the universe and everything, around the same time, my mother fell ill and I was dramatically reminded of the importance of quality medical care and specifically quality nursing care. We, my beautiful family and I, and a great team of professionals, nursed my mother back to health.
This was the answer.
Having trained as a nurse so many years before, I made the decision, which seemed crazy at the time, to return to the nursing profession. Though the journey has been long and hard, I do really enjoy it, and have got great satisfaction from the same.
However, that said, nothing prepared me for the pandemic!
In the first wave I found myself working in A&E and on the Acute Respiratory Ward in St Mary’s, where they were treating the COVID 19 Cases… it was so overwhelming, it was visually shocking and mentally and physically exhausting.
At home, with my family away and no possibility of travel to see them, or anyone else anytime soon, I needed an outlet, I turned to an old friend … the paintbrush.
So, on long walks around my home in Fulham, I took photographs of the flowers in fresh bloom in early Spring and then tried to reproduce them on canvas. It was so calming and therapeutic that I have not stopped since.
When I am in front of a canvas, I forget everything except trying to channel the object I am trying to paint, it is the most engrossing experience.
Now on our 3rd wave in the UK and currently re-deployed in ICU in Charing Cross, which is so full on, I have continued (needed) to use painting as my outlet. My subject matter varies and I am experimenting with different styles, I am loving it. It relieves my stress, allows me dream and helps me to create beauty.
In truth I cannot envisage a life without both now, they seem to blend somehow.
My maternal grandmother always said I had good hands. I am trying to put them to good use, healing and creating.
I am still on a steep learning curve, but I hope I can give just a little joy and happiness to the world through my interpretations.
Sheenagh Baxter-Martin