What success did 2015 bring you? Please let me know in a comment below.
 One of my last sketches from Oman. This is how I started the year 2014:
As many of you who regularly follow me know, my year did not go to plan neither personally nor professionally. It was also a year full of highs and lows and I am still struggling for the middle ground. I made several trips back and forth between Oman and UK following the hospitalisation then death of my father in January. Then I took 3 months unpaid leave through the summer, to pack up my parents' house, whilst trying to keep my mother happy, and finally moved back to the UK full-time in September. A constant throughout the year has been my guardian angel, Degas, who flew to UK with me in June and loves it here. What Result Positive thought . Finances? No I do have a lot of air miles though! Barcelona? No I'm in Europe. 8 hours? No 6 ink drawings? NO   44th WWSketchCrawl, Portobello Road, London. As you can see above, there are only 3 ink drawings, and 1 ink and watercolour experiment. The ink boat I have just had rescanned and am looking to add some colour to it as it is flat and lacks something, so that's 2 I'm pleased with. As my resolutions didn't go to plan, what did go well this year?  The Mayor of Colchester looking at my drawing at the opening.  April, I ran my fourth annual charity event and raised £434.50 both through collecting at the event and an online donation site. All the money went to UNICEF UK's Children of Syria appeal. July, My drawing Into the Shadows was juried into the Colchester Art Society's Summer Show. August, I attended the 5th Urban Sketchers Symposium in Paraty, Brazil. I wrote in my first after-trip post: "... I am jealous of the sketching others have done in that beautiful country. Whilst I had a fabulous time... I am not very happy with my sketches... obviously workshop sketches are experimentations and are not expected to be great yet... it would be nice." I may not have been happy with my sketching, but the wonderful people at the symposium made up for it. I re-met sketcher friends and made new ones. One of my happiest memories is sketching with the Brazilians of the sketching group, Croquis Urbanos Curitiba, on the last day.  With Croquis Urbanos Curitiba. November, I have been taken on as an art tutor for the charity WEA and had the pleasure of teaching a sector of society I normally would not associate with. I summed up the course in this post, Lessons learnt. I really enjoyed teaching the course, and look forward to teaching more soon.  So that was my year, now what about 2015? Art resolutions:
What about you? Have you reviewed your year or set resolutions? You are welcome to leave a comment or share the link to your post here.
  Al Minsefah Doorway. 2013. SOLD 2013 was a rollercoaster year with very high highs and very low dips both personally and professionally. The best was rescuing a street pup, Degas, who 8 months later has grown into a beautiful young dog with a lovely friendly temperment. Due to her, I have moved to a house with a garden, 30 seconds from the beach. The low has been seeing my mother after she had a massive stroke in May and helping her move into residential care after a long spell in hospital, whilst making sure my father (along with his dog Nelson) is cared for with his developing dementia. For 2013 I had 3 words to guide my art: inspiring, happiness and dream. Plus my resolution, as written in last year's review post was "throughout 2013 my resolution and goal will be on getting my finances in order, so I can move to Barcelona as soon as possible. ... my sketchbook will remain with me throughout 2013, I already have 2 commissions for drawings and further illustrations to do for The Story Shack... obviously my art passion will not be totally neglected." Well, due to having to take 3 trips to UK to help my parents, my finances are still not in order, though they are a little better then a year ago and I am still not in Barcelona. However, my art passion was certainly not neglected.  Burj Al Arab from Souq Madinate Jumeriah, UAE. 2013  Inspired by Norberto Dorantes Inspiring: The biggest inspiration I found was attending the Urban Sketchers' Symposium in Barcelona. Four days of sketching and talking about sketching with amazing arty people. I met artists there who I have been in awe of and following for years like Luiz Ruiz and Norberto Dorantes. I was especially pleased to finally meet Pete Scully , Omar, and Liz Steel and to sketch with Alissa. I got to catch up with the Barcelona sketchers and Nina Johansson who I'd sketched with in 2012. Then, there were all the new artists I had the pleasure to meet and sketch with such as Simone and Chris, who I can't wait to sketch with again. Other inspiration came from attending Art Dubai and the Global Art Forums in UAE, in March. It was great to see the contemporary art and attend the talks.  Illustrations and drawings from 2013. Happiness: Whilst Degas has brought love, laughter and fun in my life, happiness within my art is hard to measure:- my biggest year end profit, 3 commissions, only half as many drawings 6 compared with 2012's 14, illustration work, or a solo exhibition - which brings me to ...  The Blind House. 2013 SOLD. One of my favourite drawings from the year. Dream: I'm not sure when the dream to have my first solo show became more than a dream, but it was realised in December where I exhibited 30 pieces at the Beach House, Seeb. The exhibition exceeded all my expectations when I sold 12 of the 28 available for sale.  A wall of portraits. Another dot was later added to Still Celebrating by Mary (left) *****
Resolutions for 2014 The last three years, I have used three words to guide my life throughout the year, but cannot fix on any this year.
In order for these to be goals rather than wishes, I have an amount to achieve by October. Also, I am setting aside a minimum 8 hours each weekend for art production. Finally, I want to produce a minimum of 6 ink drawings within the year. ***** May 2014 see you produce lots of art, laughter, and bring peace & happiness. What do you think? Please leave me a comment by clicking comment below the title. Thank you. A review of 2012 For 2012, I had 3 words to guide me: Focus, Vision, Produce. From those words I had 3 resolutions of which some were more successful than others. 1. To produce a minimum of one finished piece per month. Yes. Looking in the folder on FB there are 15 drawings for 2012. I have also produced 6 published illustrations and two commissioned portraits. Yea me - my most productive year to date. Whilst I still prefer to draw buildings and landscapes I have enjoyed working on my portrait series: Festival Faces, of which the first one sold and is now hung in its Australian home.   2. To exhibit at least twice in the year. hmmm... This didn't exactly work out as I thought as I didn't have any work in exhibitions. However, I did end up with work hung in 2 galleries. Through the OSFA, I submitted a piece to an exhibition in September, however the exhibition has been delayed and so will be hung sometime in the new year. 3. Continue marketing myself. Yes. Throughout the year I continued to blog, both on my site and blogger, tweet and keep my facebook page up to date. I distributed over 100 business cards throughout the year and I had a stall at a winter fair in order to get publicity here in Oman. Also, I was interviewed on the local radio (click to hear it) and had newspaper articles on the of the sketching events I arranged. Surprises from 2012. A lovely surprise was following an email from the author Diana Baur, I produced both the cover illustration and section illustrations for her novel True Vines.  My illustrations and the published novel.  Something else I didn't anticipate was to start illustrating for the online short story site The Story Shack. To date I have had 3 illustrations published with more due in 2013. Finally, a lovely surprise was getting to participate in a 100 artist wall art collaboration, which tested my little used painting skills, and led me to work alongside both Omani and international artists. Resolutions for 2013  2013 will see my art taking second place throughout the year. Following my month in Barcelona, my love for that city was renewed and my long-term goal is to move there. However, I'm not sure if financially I can do it within 2013. Like many artists I have to work to pay the bills and I also have a flat in Italy which as a partial renovation project needs work and money, so I have just secured a new job here in Oman with a better package. With the higher salary comes longer working hours, a necessary trade in order to reach my goal. The flat is for sale, if anyone is interested in a holiday home in the beautiful Pollino National Park, Calabria. Therefore, throughout 2013 my resolution and goal will be on getting my finances in order, so I can move to Barcelona as soon as possible. Of course, my sketchbook will remain with me throughout 2013, I already have 2 commissions for drawings and further illustrations to do for The Story Shack. Also, I plan to go to the Urban Sketchers' 4th Symposium in July and... well who knows what other arty things will happen, but obviously my art passion will not be totally neglected. On a personal level, I resolve to eliminate but from my vocabulary and only focus on positive aspects. I also need to make sure I exercise throughout the year. May you fill lots of sketchbooks, produce lots of art, and have many laughs, health & happiness in the forthcoming year. *****
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About me
I am a nomadic artist travelling the world for inspiration. Here, I publish my sketchbook work alongside my new finished pieces. 
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