SEA CHANGE - The story behind the exhibition - APRIL 2021!

Posted by Caroline Valpied on Mar 10, 2021

In January 2020, after a full year of painting and planning, I held my second solo exhibition and that's where I met the talented Tim Freeman. Tim paints landscapes, but while mine could be described as fairly classical, Tim reduces the landscape to flat shapes creating striking, modern artworks. I love his work!

We followed each other on social media for the next 6 months or so and as I flew into full flung panic over COVID-19 and what it would do to my art business, I asked him to consider a joint exhibition with me. Good idea. Scheduled for April 2021...with Nov-Jan being my busiest time of year. Maybe not such a good idea!

Like all things though (when you put in the effort), it's working out. I scheduled myself to paint one painting a week from 1st Jan to end of February. Done. It's quite stressful working this way, but I've always been good with deadlines. So 8 paintings plus 2 small ones from 2020. Tim will show ten too.

If you're wondering how I work with a three year old...the short answer is - I don't. He's in daycare a couple of days a week and in kinder some mornings. I paint during those hours.

And where I paint...well, you won't see any pictures of that! I paint at the end of our garage, shifting my chair to avoid the whipper snipper, sniffing the delicious aromas of damp cut grass from the lawnmower, turning up the music to drown out the hum from the beer fridge!

But I LOVE IT! I love all of it...taking photos out and about, getting excited about them in front of the canvas, promoting my work on social media, talking to kind people at the summer markets, sitting in my space in the garage, mixing colours, making magic. Don't get me wrong, there is a point in every painting where I get stuck, don't know where it's going...and running your own business is HARD, but it's all worth it and I do know how lucky I am.

So thanks Tim for agreeing to this exhibition, and like me, creating your paintings in record time.

Thanks everyone for supporting us artists as we bring more beauty into this world.

I hope you can come to our exhibition!

Tim Freeman Sanctuary painting