My name is Letitia and I live in a small village in the Lincolnshire countryside, a place of flat open fields and big skies.
When I moved here seventeen years ago, I never imagined how much village life would inspire my artwork and seep into my day-to-day life. The slower pace and sense of community has given me the time to stop and look around me a little bit more. Being able to watch nature on my doorstep has permeated my imagery and storytelling, be it the rowdy starlings descending on the birdfeeder in an iridescent mob, or the glamorous magpie with his stuttering flight across the glowing yellow fields.
One day, when visiting my neighbour, she told me about a cheeky blackbird who would appear by the window for his breakfast, and who was even known on occasion to hop into her kitchen with his brood and help himself to the crumbs on the floor! She called him Mr Bertimus.
There was something magical about this story, and so my make-believe world of painted, collaged and stitched characters had a name.
When I was little I remember watching my Mum paint, often while she was listening to Simon and Garfunkel and Bob Dylan. I was lucky to be a hippy love child of the ‘Seventies, growing up in a house of creativity and the craziest swirly wallpaper you have ever seen!
I have worked in art education for over twenty years and I love meeting kindred spirits on my painting, mixed media and textiles workshops.
I think that making and sharing art is such an important part of life. Starting my blog many years ago introduced a whole new community of like-minded souls to me. It is through this friendship and support that my confidence began to grow and I started to share my creative work and stories. This has become such an important part of my life, both personally and creatively, that I hope to share a little bit of this happiness here in my online village, where every house has outrageous wallpaper, a neighbour’s kettle is always on and, if the fancy takes you, you can have a chat and a custard cream with a passing blackbird …
