About a Little Fish

My name is Cindie and I am an artist.

I'm also a mother, a librarian and an ex-employee of a Social Enterprise .  I'm lots of other things too, but that's enough for now I think.  I first worked as a decorative artist when my children were small.  I had visions of painting away whilst my (then) tiny daughter snoozed away in her moses basket, sadly I forgot to tell her that.  So for several years I painted portraits and landscapes and decorated all kinds of items from walls to loo seats and also tried to be a mum.

It was one Christmas, when I had a mass of orders and was up till 3am every night for weeks to try and fulfil them and still trying to make Christmas cookies and presents and spend time with the children when I realised that something had to give.  So I got a job, for two days a week with a wonderful organisation called TAG Highland.  TAG works with adults who are recovering from mental health problems, supporting them and helping them to work towards becoming more well.  That job was only 12 hours a week, so I took another job too and worked as a library assistant in a small west coast library.  For several years I juggled three jobs, the library, TAG and the adult education role in the village.  In the next few years I organised all kinds of events, started book groups and writing groups and issued books and shared information.  I was also instrumental in starting a small social firm called Rag Tag n Textile and, in all that time, I seldom picked up a paintbrush or made or created anything.

Then, in November last year my husband retired.  We'd discussed it for months, and looked at our finances and talked and planned and finally decided that I would stop working too.  We'd cope with less money and we'd both take time for us.  For the last few months we've been busy, we sorted out 14 years worth of stuff and decorated the house and worked on the garden and as part of these changes I got to set up a studio.

My helper Ziggy

 I set up a Facebook Page a Twitter and a Pintrest and spent the winter months looking at art and wonderful crafts and being inspired.  I also got to paint and make and that has been wonderful!  I'm horribly rusty and I know that my style has changed, but I'm having a great time just holding a brush again, or cutting out or making.  This blog is about my journey and about some of the artists and inspirational people that I've met along the way

Some of my work