Blue

Lockdown was just starting to ease up. Like most of the world, I'd had enough of pacing around the same living space, so I started taking myself on solo dates. Trips to spice up my life, enjoy my own company, explore things I sometimes didn't have time to go and see while I was studying. And so on one rainy day I went to Bath.

Why did I go to Bath? Well here's the important back story..

While I was painting my A-Level final piece through lockdown, the lady who cleans our house agreed to continue working with proper PPE and of course plenty of cleaning equipment. Every time she went into my room to clean, my painting would be sat on my bedroom floor, still progressing (it took a long old while) and she watched it form into the final painting, week by week seeing each change and stroke.

She'd spoken to my mum about it a couple of times and mentioned how incredible she thought it was. After a chatter about it with me one day she mentioned that she would love some paintings of her dog to put up in her house and wondered if I could paint him as a commissioned piece. I of course agreed, time was abundant and I was thrilled to have someone wanting to buy my artistic talent.

Anyway, I was in Bath to buy canvases for the paintings of Buster (her terrior) and while I was there I thought I may as well pop into some shops that were opening up. Lush was one of them. They weren't exactly open but instead had a little stall in the doorway of their shop with a colleague there to give service and sell the products. I'm sure everyone knows how chatty and lovely Lush employees are so we just got chatting while I was picking out some bath bombs. He asked me about what I was doing that day so I mentioned the canvases for the paintings I was doing. It went something like this:

"Oh you're an artist?"

"yeah I'm trying to do more paintings over lockdown to get myself back into the swing before I go to my foundation year"

"No way that's great! We actually have a wall that we're trying to fill with small local artists at the moment and each artist has a section. If you send me some of your stuff on instagram I could see if we can put any up when things open again in a couple of weeks"

Of course I was pleasantly shocked. I agreed profusely, told him thank you and that I would message him for sure, then trotted away with a massive smile, some gorgeous bath bombs and a heart full of warmth from human interaction.

As soon as I got home I sent him a message with my A Level painting, 'Pink' and a couple of other examples, slightly worried that I just wouldn't get a reply or that they'd have no space for me.

Sure enough, a reply came through. They loved my work and said I could have the left side of the wall. They gave me a time frame of when I could bring my things in and put them up, and I got straight to work.

Though I stated with 'Pink' that there was no particular brief, I now formed one for myself. The Lush demographic. Vibrant, all ages with a youthful feel, non discriminatory, and 'me'.

Then came Blue.