How Nicholas Wilton and ART2LIFE changed my life.

Around two years ago I had a dawn of realisation that although I was quite happy with my work I was missing the final piece. My figure paintings were technically the most skilled they had ever been and I was making sales on a regular basis. I had been training for the past decade to make my figurative oil paintings ‘better’, which ultimately meant increasingly realistic. I took endless life classes and devoured all the notes on anatomy and rendering tone, until I got pretty good.

I had studied for two years under Alexandra (Sandie) Gardner, Scottish figure painter extraordinaire and ex-lecturer at The Glasgow School of Art. She took my self-taught skills and added valuable and useful lessons that was never shown when I studied Graphic Design there in the 80s. Even she admitted that my work was destined to evolve where she could not take me.

There was one thing missing and it took me quite a while to realise what that thing was. I was great at making art but still unhappy somehow with the results. The answer came to me when I was in a gallery looking at some art by Henry Jabbour – what I was missing was the emotion and sparkle. I had spent so long trying to learn to paint like the masters that I’d kind of lost myself in the process. My paintings were accepted to shows and sold well, but I started to avoid going to the studio. I had even started looking at other jobs I could do instead of making art.

Sometimes when we are at you are at your most lost, the Universe answers your question with an opportunity. Browsing facebook, I came across Nicholas Wilton from ART2LIFE who was running a free week long course as a taster for his yearly abstract painting course called Creative Visionary process (or CVP for short). I watched the videos on design, value and colour and followed the live calls and suddenly I started to see the world through new eyes. I noticed colour nuance and abstract shapes everywhere I looked. Nicholas’s enthusiasm was so infectious and I found my self once more, eager to get out my sketchbook and make art.

Specifically, the Art2Life workshop will explore exciting ideas like:
– How to use a ground-breaking concept called Differences to quickly make your art more arresting and impactful
– How to use the principle of Value to create art that is instantly more balanced, refined, and striking
– A simple but surprising approach to creating amazing Colour and a sophisticated sense of harmony throughout your work
– Exactly what to do when your art feels stuck or incomplete (this will revolutionise the way you think of mistakes forever)
– Plus ways to make your creative life feel more spacious, joyful and personal to you… even if you’re in a creative funk or short on time.

Even if you just take ONE insight away that helps you shift your art… I know it will be well worth your time, as it was for me!

I finished CVP 2019 in September and the lessons encouraged me towards a braver and more experimental way of making art. It also encouraged me to look within for what I want to create, rather than what reaps the most praise from others. I have more recently found myself to be slipping back to old ways, so I’m excited to say that I’ve enrolled as an alumni student for the full CVP 2021. I’m using this 12 week course as an art retreat to revisit my studio practice and look at where it, and my life, is headed next.

An added bonus for me is that if any of you want to come along for the ride and sign up for the paid course, which will be offered from 16th-24th February, and stay beyond the 30-day money back guaranteed time, I get a little commission. This will help me buy some time to develop the online teaching courses and materials, that I’ve been longing to make and share. There is however, absolutely no obligation to go any further than the fun freebee above!

I look forward to seeing you over on the ART2Life facebook group and seeing you light up with enthusiasm for making your art!

All the best, Fiona