After a few years in the creative desert following my MA, one of those wonderful quirks of fate happened to reignite my creative spirit. An old friend got in touch to invite me to join her and her family at the interment of her late husband's ashes. This would take place a couple of hours' drive away and she told me that a friend of hers, a painter called Niel Bally who also lives in Wales, would be happy to drive me. Niel, and his wife, Sue, run Art Courses Wales where I'd taken a Life Drawing Course several years previously. The shared drive didn't work out but the connection was made and I was fortunate enough to get a place as one of Niel's mentees and to become a member of the Black Mountain Painters group.

We meet once a month for tutorial days, where we talk about creative deas and aspirations and discuss our work. These are wonderfully helpful and inspiring events with the added bonus of delicious lunches provided by Sue and accompanied by the kind of interesting and uplifting discussions that seem to happen too rarely. I always come away with my love of art and my determination to be my best creative self invigorated and reinforced.

Starting to paint again after such a long break was, frankly, very daunting. Any links that had existed between my eyes, brain and hand seemed to have broken as had my confidence in colour mixing and, even more worrying, my ability to keep my hand steady when trying to apply that colour...It was a case of starting again and thankfully bit by bit, with the invaluable support and encouragement of Niel and the group, confidence - and steadiness - has begun to return.

I created a studio in my conservatory (fortunately a room strangely positioned to get no direct sun though plenty of natural light!), and decided to begin painting still lifes as I enjoy doing them and could trust them not to change too dramatically from day to day as I worked. (Apart from one courgette that had clearly had enough of posing after about a week and suddenly rolled over and collapsed into a pool of slime as I was painting it.)

I initially began using water mixable oils as my dog often accompanies me while I paint and was disturbed by the smell of the solvents required for oil paints, but found them frustrating. Recently I've returned to my previous preferred medium of acrylics and find them far more satisfying.

(The image is of a very sketchy still life of some wonderfully bosomy, bottomy quinces done with water mixable oils.)

So - onwards and upwards...more to follow.