"This is My Best Side"
Original Watercolour by Jean Haines
What a year. It is only the beginning of March and yet so many wonderful opportunities are arising which is one reason for my sharing this painting of a camel!
Today I am meeting the organisers of my workshop in Norway which takes place this Summer. This will be my first visit to the beautiful country so I am very much looking forward to sharing my techniques there.
I am looking into several opportunities to hold workshops in USA and am thrilled to be looking into a return to Dubai also.
I lived in Dubai and made many wonderful friends there. I started teaching watercolour at the Dubai International Arts Centre and it was here that I started exhibiting along with many other incredible international artists. I am still in touch with the wonderful owner of the gallery who first started my art adventure there as a professional artist. And I am so grateful for their support and encouragement in my art life.They guided me and following their advise I remember nervously taking a painting of a mosque into their gallery. When I returned I saw an artist I had been to on a workshop admiring my landscape which was now on display.
I heard them say " I wish I could paint like that".
They hadn't realised it was my work and they congratulated me on my colour selection,technique and style. I couldn't believe this was happening at the time. That day my painting sold and it was the first of many to find their way into homes all over the world.
Having someone recognise your talent and to know galleries are behind you is such a wonderful feeling. My main subjects then were portraits quickly followed by landscapes and camels.I can smile now while I remember so many people advising me that portraits hardly ever sold so I should stay with painting landscapes. I paint from my heart so continued to paint portraits. Surprisingly they actually became my best sellers!
After Norway this year I will be visiting South Africa and then a return to Asia is possible.
Travelling keeps variety in my work. I see colours change and new subjects around every corner. Today as I drive throught country lanes to my meeting I will be seeing many new lambs gamboling in the fields where once I would drive past majestic camels. I think this could be the reason I fell in love with orange as a colour from all those glorious desert scenes!
To be in touch with so many wonderful people from all over the world and be invited to visit so many wonderful locations is such a privilege.
I am indeed very blessed and this morning as I paint I may just travel to a far off land or I could just paint the blue skies I see here.
That is the joy and magic of being an artist,
At any moment in time I can be anywhere in the world at the touch of a brush!
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1 comment:
I love this camel!
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