Last year I had a super secret mission I couldn't talk about - well now I can! I had the honour of being a 'wildcard' entrant for the Sky Landscape Artist of the Year TV program and enjoyed an exciting day at Compton Verney Art Gallery painting my butt off and meeting lots of interesting people. So what is it like to be a wildcard artist for LAOTY?

If you don't know the program, selected artists are given the opportunity to paint their interpretation of a landscape at a number of locations around the UK. The show is presented by Stephen Mangan and Joan Bakewell, and features 3 judges Tai Shan Schierenberg, Kathleen Soriano and Kate Bryan. The winners from the early heats then go on to face off against each other in later episodes until an overall winner is chosen. 50 'wildcard' artists are also invited to paint at the same time as the main competitors at each heat, the idea being that one of them can be chosen to progress to shake things up a bit.

This video is about my day and the general process of being one of the Wildcard artists.

My collection of videos on YouTube has been slowly building and there’s now several hours’ worth of nature inspired art projects, short films, exploratory walks and create-with-me videos - not forgetting the addictive ‘30 Seconds in Nature’ playlist where you can enjoy a selection of small snippets of peace, an essential respite in this crazy world!

I really enjoy the editing process and am doing the best I can to make my videos better and better, if you have a particular project or video topic you’d like to see send me a message and I’ll see what I can do…

Check out the INSPIRED 4 NATURE YouTube channel here> and if you like what you see remember to subscribe to see new videos!

Welcome and Happy New Year to you (whenever you happen to be reading this!)

To kick-start a year of colour and creativity, I've gone back to the very basis of nature itself with the geometric snowflake page design below.

I actually found myself a bit stuck for what to draw for January's page and started various sketches ranging from an ice shelf at the edge of a river, a forest of birch trees, birds, berries, and frosted ferns, but none seemed to ignite anything...

I wanted something to start us off right.

A design that encapsulates not only the deepest Winter month but the very essence of life and creativity...

Look closely and we find the same repeating patterns throughout nature - this snowflake is based on the six sided ‘flower of life’ offering limitless options for colouring no two the same!

📩 Check your inbox for yours, or if you haven't yet joined us enter your email below to #stayinspired - it’s free and you can unsubscribe any time.

I'd love to see YOUR completed snowflakes and be able to share them on a post, like a colourful blizzard! So please comment a picture of your results (as many variations as you want) below or send them in a message and let's start the year INSPIRED by each other... 🌨❄️❄️❄️🤲

I'm so excited right now - INSPIRED for NATURE designs are now available through Redbubble.com, a trusted print on demand platform featuring the art you love on quality household products. Look at my gorgeous fox on this gorgeous cushion THAT YOU CAN BUY! It's blowing my mind I’m telling you...

Here’s what they have to say about themselves:

“Redbubble was born in 2006 in Melbourne, Australia. The dream was simple. Give independent artists a meaningful new way to sell their creations. Today, we connect over 700,000 artists and designers across the planet with millions of passionate fans. A brave (and dare we say stylish) new world of self expression.”

What it means to me is a way to get my artwork into peoples homes on a variety of product options whilst at the same time not having to deal with vast volumes of cushions and other such stock and folks can get their orders no matter where in the world I happen to be at the time!

There are nature themed art clocks, showers curtains, bath mats, bags, mugs of varying styles, cushions, coasters, stickers and magnets, pin button badges, and of course regular art prints for the wall… Check out my collections in the SHOP and let me know if there’s something you’d like to see my images on if you can’t find it already.

Thanks and stay INSPIRED! Sarah x

8(ish) year old me in front of the ocean (don’t panic, it might have been the 90’s but there was still plenty of land between me and the actual cliff edge…)!

When I’m processing orders I can’t help but think of 8 year old me and the bootleg sticker business I started at school - that inevitably got shut down but planted the seed of a lifetime…

You see I had heard about the plight of the whales and that IFAW (the International Fund for Animal Welfare) were in desperate need of donations, so being the ocean-obsessed little girl I was, and still am, I decided to raise some money so they could get some help!

Realising there was a market for the (extremely copyright-infringed) Disney characters I was drawing at the time, I recreated them on sticky-backed craft paper - selling them at a mighty 2p a piece, and 20p for the really BIG ones. Within a couple of days I had racked up quite a few pounds and all the kids were showing off their custom sticker designs, up until someone reported me to a teacher and they quickly put a stop to it all. It all caused quite the stir!

After a meeting about the ‘incident’ I took what money I had made and exchanged it for a post-safe cheque from my mum (a whopping £20!) including some of my own pocket money and certainly some extra from mum. Feeding that envelope into the red post box at the end of my street I felt like a superhero.

Part of me looks back and wonders how much difference £20 could possibly have made in the grand scheme of things, but of course it made a difference - every cause we fund or fight for does something even if it’s just from the collective will of wanting things to be better.

It’s for 8 year old me, and for all the nature loving 8 year olds to come, that I pledged to donate at least 10% of every sale I make to environmental charities and why my art is inspired FOR nature and not just by it… I thank you in turn for your support! Stay INSPIRED…

Sarah x