About me
Since childhood I’ve loved art and beautiful things. I regularly played truant from school to go and see paintings and artefacts that I loved. Later, my work involved travelling regularly and I prioritised seeing the finest art produced by different countries in international collections and also how the artisans expressed their particular culture. When an opportunity for a career change came I managed to persuade Percy Barkes, a brilliant art dealer of Russian Paintings and Japanese Prints to employ me. I spent a dozen years absorbing his skill and knowledge, all the time educating myself: buying pieces, tracking prices, making mistakes, getting braver but all the time keeping a firm lid on the budget. Working within these parameters meant I could get fantastic examples of the smallest things, like ephemera. These were affordable but also original, beautiful and often rare.
Primarily, what I’m doing is providing a service for people who would like a beautiful, nourishing space around them with meaningful things to look at; things that reflect their own inner creativity, not someone else’s idea of what that should be. To help them identify and source something that will enrich their life and enhance their personal space and surroundings. To co-create unique, bespoke life-enhancing areas; all you need for a lovely, contemplative and serene area. Being alive to art, beauty and lovely treasure helps keep us in the moment, in awareness, which is the shortest most direct route to harmony
This is for people just like me. People who already have an idea that they are influenced by their surroundings. People who like looking at loveliness and believe it’s important to have a clear and calm space where they are able to ground and centre themselves. There’s often a crisis of confidence in self expression after the soft furnishings are chosen and with good reason. The mysteries of art world pricing, the dearth of buying opportunities and insecurity about what actually is a reasonable price can deter even the most stylish. Understandably, people simply don’t know why things are priced the way they are but that's something which is an enjoyable thing to learn. Anyone can do it, it’s just one step removed from buying your cushions and curtains or china for your kitchen. It’s right there in you, you have the ability to do that. You just need to have your creative artistic instinct awakened and developed. Only you can choose the visual system right for your space - this three dimensional representation of yourself.
The advantages of Feng Shui - Colour Up
Lockdown shone a light on the fact that most of us need a bit of help in the ‘background’ department. We’ve all witnessed Zoom room blandness - empty walls or a picture that is hung so high, nobody can see it, but most of all it’s just a sea of grey and beige out there. A real lack of colour tells of the power of trends. If you have a sea of blandness around you, its not going to be giving anything back. Colour has a powerful effect and you can use both it and your surroundings to create permanent life enhancing improvements.
Another beauty of feng shui is not just what you are released from when you de-clutter, it’s about what you re-find. Everything is meaningful, so whatever you find when you are creating a clearer space, was meant to be because when you’re moving, you’re ‘in flow’. When stuff goes out, you create space for more to come in and that’s how the energy works. So part of that clearing out will trigger memories in you, you may find a card or see something from a person you love or a treasured object. You move it around and the energy changes and your trajectory changes. A brilliant thing to do - before you even hang a picture or worrying about your eye resting somewhere nice - is to make sure it’s not resting somewhere awful.
This is something anybody can do regardless the size of their space or budget and I can guarantee that. Show me a budget and I’ll create you a space - it can be as little as £100 - limits enhance creativity. That space might be your backyard or a corner of a room but we can put things of beauty in there which reflect you and show your heart’s desire because you can only attract it if you see it. That’s the how the image system works with the subconscious.
Some people find it hard to let go of things and wonder why they’re doing it. I am that person too, I find it difficult to let go. As most collectors turn into dealers, I’m having to let go or else nothing else can come in. A realisation that this is the nature of ‘flow’ helps you to let it go because flow is a necessary and excellent thing to have in your life. The unwanted stuff goes on to have another life and you sell something that has been hanging in your wardrobe for five years. It’s going to become part of a new outfit and may become the new owner’s favourite thing. Being able to think of the transaction in a more pragmatic than an emotional way, helps with the wanting to hold on to it, you’re kind of releasing it back to the wild to it so it can go on and enjoy itself.
The simplest of changes like the re-arranging of furniture, a warm colour in a east facing room, the life-giving energy of plants, the soft light of candles or lamps, lovely scents, a comfortable chair. These are basic ideas to make your surroundings somewhere you want to be and where you feel in harmony with yourself.
