December 18, 2025

Advent

We are regularly away from home these days, supporting our family through health issues.

My art bag is packed with sketchbooks, paint and collage so that I can create simply and easily without too much mess.

I wanted to do something Christmasy during our November days away and decided to fill a small sketchbook with nativity figures. Having a project to focus on motivates me to keep creating at home and away, through the good times and bad.

As I painted some of the well known characters, it reminded me of an advent calendar. When I was a child, we had picture calendars, this was before the chocolate ones came along.

Opening a window in a beautifully illustrated scene would reveal sparkling stars, singing angels and other parts of the Christmas story.

With this in mind, I decided to create my own version of an advent calendar. It’s now early December, the paintings are being photographed and posted on my chat group every day. My friends are really appreciating a daily picture to inspire their devotions and I am enjoying sharing my work.

Of course it didn’t end there! My nativity paintings have gravitated towards cards and I have been trying out different ideas for angels to give to friends and family. Once you start a project like this, you never quite know where it will take you.

Cards led to presents and for my finale’ I painted three small scenes on canvas boards. Without all the previous steps, these paintings would have been laboured and probably unfinished.

My Christmas project will come to a natural end in a couple of weeks and I will be looking for new inspiration.

Can you start a creative project that fits in with your life at the moment?

Something you can follow through where ever it leads?