Breaking Free: Colourful Art That Empowers Women to Take Up Space
‘Bringing the Sunshine’ found it’s forever home at the Affordable Art Fair, but if you’d love something similar, let’s create something just for you! Reach out via my commission page
When Creativity Feels Like a Cage
I knew I had run out of excuses.
For weeks, I’d been procrastinating, caught in a cycle of busy work—organising my studio, tidying up, scrolling Pinterest for “inspiration.” Anything but actually starting a new piece. But last Friday, I had no more admin left to hide behind. It was time to create.
I sat down with my sketchbook, flicked through my old notes, and... nothing. I couldn’t start. I pulled out my art books, searching for a spark. Still nothing. Opened Pinterest, only to feel more overwhelmed, drowning in a sea of other artists’ brilliance. Instead of feeling inspired, I felt small. Trapped. Like a butterfly straining against the walls of its own cocoon, desperate to break free and create art that makes you feel alive.
Breaking the Rules I Built for Myself
And then it hit me: I was the one who had built this cage.
I’d spent years in the world of illustration, where creativity is often about answering a brief. Someone tells you what to do, and you execute it. Even when I started working for myself, I carried that structure with me, setting increasingly complex briefs for my own work, thinking it would help me start.
Instead, it just tightened the cage around me. The more I tried to define exactly what I should be creating, the less I could create at all.
So I did something radical (for me!). I stopped planning. I let myself play.
That Friday, I started four new pieces with no expectation, just making marks for fun. Dripping ink, messy brushstrokes, colours bleeding into each other. It felt like breathing again.
Getting ready for creative play
Letting Go of the Masks
In that moment, I realised something else: my art isn’t just about self-expression—it’s about self-reclamation. It’s for women who are done shrinking themselves to fit into the world’s expectations. Women who refuse to be the “right” kind of quiet, compliant, digestible version of themselves.
And yet, here I was, doing exactly what I tell others not to do—shrinking my own creativity, boxing it in, suffocating it under self-imposed rules.
Unlearning Control, Embracing Growth
One of the most humbling things I’ve learned is that true growth comes from allowing yourself to be a student—even when you’ve been doing something for years.
It can be tricky to be the student, not the teacher, but I know the magic happens when I allow myself to be curious and vulnerable instead of clinging to expertise.
I had a fabulous chat with my daughter, my nephew, and his partner about how artists of all kinds wrestle with balancing creative freedom and the reality of needing to sell their work.
How the best art often isn’t forced into a structure, but unfolds through the process. Writers don’t start with the perfect story; they let it emerge. Musicians don’t compose entire symphonies in one go; they play, they experiment.
Why was I trying to control something that was supposed to be free?
"Create Your Path" is a reminder to embrace boldness, authenticity, and the courage to live life on your own terms.
Permission to Play
I think a lot of us do this—not just artists. We create rigid expectations for ourselves, thinking we have to get it right before we even begin. But creativity—and life—doesn’t work that way.
So if you’re feeling stuck, here’s what I want you to do: play.
Let go of the need to be perfect. Try something new and allow yourself to be a beginner. We never criticise a toddler for falling over while learning to walk—so why do we punish ourselves for not getting things right immediately? The only way to get good is to be bad first.
This is something I’m still working on, both in my art and in my life. I’m experimenting with looser marks, dripping ink, and imperfect lines. I want my work to feel freer, wilder, bolder—because that’s what I want for myself, too.
Why Art That Empowers Women Matters
For so long, I tried to fit into what I thought my art should be. I built walls around my creativity, boxing myself in with rules that were meant to guide me but ended up suffocating me. But just like the women I paint, I needed to allow myself to take up space too.
My plan now is to stay open to learning, stay curious, and honour the tradition of the bold, unapologetic female artists before me. I'll continue pushing forward—not just for myself but for every woman who has ever felt the pressure to shrink.
Art has always played a role in shaping identity and defying expectations. Female empowerment art isn’t just about aesthetics; it’s about reclaiming space and making a statement. For centuries, paintings of women have often reflected what society wanted them to be, rather than who they truly were. But today, artists are rewriting that story. I am proud to contribute to this shift, carrying forward the legacy of women who have used their art to challenge, disrupt, and inspire.
My work isn’t just about breaking away from expectations—it’s about giving women permission to take up space, unapologetically and boldly, in their own lives.
The Art That Reminds Us to Take Up Space
This is why I create the way I do. My bold, quirky portraits are of women living life their own way, on their own terms.
They are unapologetic, radiant, unshrinkable.
My still lifes aren’t delicate little flower arrangements—they are explosions of colour, movement, and energy, blooms stretching outward, refusing to be contained.
I want my art to remind people, especially women: You don’t have to shrink to fit. You don’t have to be who the world says you should be.
You get to take up space—in your home, in your work, in your life.
The Blooming Boldness of Flowers
I love including flowers in my work; they’re a visual cue for growth, vibrance, and unapologetic beauty. They explode off the canvas, blooming boldly, opening up to be fully seen—just as we should allow ourselves to be.
Flowers don’t ask for permission to bloom. They don’t hesitate or hold back. And yet, how often do we? How often do we hold back, question ourselves, or shrink to fit and hold back our full brilliance?
As I loosened my art—allowing ink to drip, colours to bleed, and marks to be imperfect—I realised that true self-expression isn’t about control. It’s about expanding unapologetically, allowing our true colours to shine.
My art is here to serve as that reminder—to take up space, to live with confidence, and to bloom without fear.
And if you need a reminder? Let your walls say it for you!
Just like my art is a reminder to take up space, to be bold, and to own your presence, I wanted to create something wearable that carries that same energy.
I’ve designed something just for you. My new T-shirts are coming soon—bold, unapologetic, and a daily nudge to live on your own terms.
