Dusting off a relic

Many moons ago, I had an art blog hosted on Blogger (then known as Blogspot, I think) you can find it here: https://birdsongandbutterflies.blogspot.com/

There were only a handful of posts I wrote on there, between 2011 and 2013. My blog is so old that I completely forgot it even existed! After a long hiatus from my own personal art while I juggled caring for my aging parents alongside my young children and my high school teaching career, I discovered that one of my paintings (“Patterns In Her Hair 1” from 2011) had been copied and was being sold without my consent. This led me down a rabbit hole on the internet where I found not one, but multiple versions of my painting had been duplicated / adapted / digitised by artists located around the world and they were all selling their versions of my artwork, alongside examples by students who had copied it for their own enjoyment or skill development and posted their versions online. It was an epiphany moment. Students practising from my work is not something I am concerned about - in fact it is something I actively encourage my own students to do, with due credit given to the artists whose work they explore - however discovering my art had been ripped off and other people were financially benefitting from it without my consent (my artwork online has alwasys been Copyright protected) was simultaneously frustrating and eye opening.

Having given up my old website ‘Dragon Treasure’ many years ago, I decided to create a new online presence for my work and embrace the internet once more - and so Birdsong & Butterflies was born. The title is a dedication to my parents who are no longer here. When they were alive, we would spend many lovely afternoons listening to the birdsong in the garden, watching the bees and butterflies dancing about. It felt like a fitting title for my new website and Instagram page.

So I have decided to actively write more frequent blogs about the various art events I am taking part in, the things which are inspiring my art practice and the work I am currently creating. You will find that here on my website.

In the meantime, if you feel so inclined, you can take a gander at the work I was creating nearly 15 years ago here: https://birdsongandbutterflies.blogspot.com/

I am very proud of the art business I have built up over time, teaching in mainstream education for over 20 years, teaching adults and running art society workshops and demonstrations freelance for over 12 years and tutoring budding artists of all ages. As the Australian musician Paul Kelly sang in his beautiful song “From Little Things Big Things Grow”. Start small and who knows where it will lead.