My current body of work is focusing on gratitude and going easier on ourselves, for me it is a natural progression on from the work behind The Stolen Moments Collections, it is where I'm at personally. For the first time in a long time I'm not wanting to rush to the 'next thing', hoping it will bring more ease than where I am currently at and I'm giving myself more time so that I'm not having to rush to the 'next thing'. I'm still working on cultivating those moments of stillness when I can just stop and take life in.

Bare Essentials, my first finished piece of 2020 perfectly describes this stripping back and current need to uncomplicated my life. Continuing my mission to keep focused on what truly matters to me and to try and not get distracted, filling my life with 'things' that steal precious time and headspace.

For this next body of work I've gone big. Larger canvases, but I'm experimenting more with freeing up space on the canvas. Concentrating on giving the forms room to be and interact with each other in a different way.

As previous collections I'm embracing my passion for colour, I'm still using bold, bright colours, but I've included some more earthy, muted tones in this collection. I'm intrigued to see how the collection will sit together as a whole.

Once I've finished these initial more minimal pieces I know I will then go on to paint about the work that has gone into getting to the place where I am now, the messy hard work that is complicated and at times painful and comes in cycles, intertwining with the ease, reminding me that I will forever be a work in progress myself.

Early January had me taking time away from my brushes to deal with family matters, so I'm hoping the end the month and early February will have me making some solid progress on this body of work before Winter break and the children are off again.

I look forward to sharing more behind the scenes of this collection over on Instagram and for now you can view available original pieces and prints over on my website.

Wishing you all a great end to the month!
Johanna xo