“Once upon a time there was a ginger art student called Kirstin who wasn’t sure she had what it took to become a fine artist. Instead she trained as a costume designer, but she soon discovered that she was not keen on being nice to actors. So she decided that painting scenery was more up her street. Kirstin was a lucky ginger scenery painter and painted scenery happily for many, many years. One day, after she had married her handsome prince, Kirstin had a beautiful baby girl and no longer had the time or energy to run up and down ladders carrying big buckets of paint. So for several years she concentrated on being a mummy, doing lots of messy painting with her little girl! Until one day she grew sad. Her very wise mum said she knew how Kirstin could be happy again – all she needed to do was start painting! So Kirstin transformed the garden shed into an art studio and painted one picture a week for 6 months. After the 6 months was up she held an exhibition for everyone to come and see what she had painted! Lots of paintings were bought and Kirstin lived happily ever after! ”

But as we all know – quite often the end of the fairytale is just the beginning of the story… In September 2014 I decided to pick up a paintbrush and start painting for myself for the first time in ages. I had been working as a commercial artist for years but hadn’t painted for pleasure since I was pregnant in 2005. I hoped that if I put in a bit of effort to develop my own style then I could become a successful artist. I needed to set myself a deadline so I planned an exhibition for 6 months after I started to paint. I had the self imposed challenge to paint one painting a week until the date of my exhibition. It worked really well for me and I painted every spare moment of the day. I developed my style and ended up with a really strong body of work. I have recently started to blog (how is that even a real word?) and I write about my life as a full time artist.

I trained as a theatre designer and worked for many years as as a scenic artist for theatre, TV and events. It’s this background that has led me to to work in the way that I do. I tend to grid up the canvas in a series of squares or triangles and work around it from block to block bringing everything together at the end. My preferred medium is acrylic on canvas which I then enhance with a water-based glaze. I paint very quickly, either in a pointillist style, or with small dashes of colour, adding layer upon layer to build up depth and intensity. The starting point for many of my paintings is often a photograph that I have taken or that someone has passed on to me. My contemporary pet portraits have a definite photographic quality to them, but my landscapes are more painterly and rarely resemble the original reference. I am planning a new collection of still life paintings and I hope to bring my unique process to a whole new range of subjects.

I try to demonstrate my painting style at events as often as possible as people find it fascinating to watch an artist at work. I have been told on many occasions that I work in an unusual way; but it’s the only way I know. I like to turn the canvas upside-down or sideways, photograph it and digitally manipulate the colour balance, look at it in a mirror – anything that helps me to see it in a different way and decide on the next step. I taught art to primary school children for 2 years and I really enjoy passing on my knowledge about materials and techniques to both children and adults.

Kirstin Wood works from her studio in Merstham, Surrey creating vibrant and quirky paintings of landscapes, animals, plants and food with unique crops and close ups – the common theme being her bright palette and unique layering style. Please get in touch to discuss a commission or to talk about her work.

More info: kirstinwood.co.uk

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