How the year started...

And we're just getting going...

Here's some highlights:

Craigs Aspiring Art Prize - Wanaka

Always a January highlight. A fabulous art exhibition organised as the primary fundraiser for the Holy Family Catholic School in Wanaka. The show has some highly sought-after prizes for the lucky artists (hasn't been me ... yet) and can be a tricky show to get accepted into as a result.

This is my 4th year attending - and another year with my piece selling on opening night.

I chose to paint a local-to-Wanaka scene: the cafes and shops along the lakefront, gently lit as the evening encroached. I named it 'Under the Canopy' as a nod to the trees providing shelter on this section of Ardmore Street.

I'll certainly be painting and entering again in 2027. Entries usually close early November, and at this rate, that'll come around tomorrow.

Yes, I do mean 'Bouquet' (not bokeh)

I had the pleasure of attending a Bouquet Workshop with Penny from Blooming Heck. Penny taught us to make a hand-tied spiral bouquet using her stunning flowers. I'd been chatting with her about coming to photograph her garden (with a view to sourcing some bokeh reference photos) when the opportunity arose. We didn't get the sun I needed for the photos that night, but I will likely return once her dahlia patch is in full swing...

In the meantime, I did photograph the arrangement in beautiful evening light the following day, and have some gorgeous images that I'll hopefully paint over the coming months - to keep summer alive even as the seasons cool.

'The Glimmers' 

Honestly not much painting happened in The Studio over the summer. I chose not to force it with the kids at home - after all what's the point of a 'flexible' career if it can't accommodate school holidays while the kids are young?

As the summer wore on though, I did really start to 'itch' to paint - as much because it's in my DNA as because of the news cycle (especially coming out of the USA 🥴). Bearing in mind the quote from Dr Martin Luther King Jnr:

"Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that..."

It was time to paint some light - this became a series of 'glimmers'. These pieces capture small moments of light and beauty - and will be bringing some softness and joy to walls locally and around the world (I'm about to post one off to NY). There are still a couple left which you can check out here.

The Penny Drops went viral on TikTok

This wasn't on my bingo card for 2026! It turns out that going viral has a realllllllllly long tail (a month later, the video in question is still getting seen by thousands each day), and I quickly learned that responding to thousands of comments is actually impossible (though I gave it a good go).

I also learned that my art is incredibly triggering to some people (I never imagined literal  paintings of softness and light could be so controversial!).

If you want to see the original video on TikTok it's here, or I've recently reposted it on Instagram (here) and it's brought in hundreds of new followers there too. 

While virality has been fun, it certainly not 'a magic bullet' - it resulted in very few sales, or even website visits - but hopefully the people who discovered my art because of it will stick around and there might be some bokeh art on their walls in the future...

So that was January... I wonder what February will bring!! 

x Mel