“This is what I want to do – conservation. Paint trees and woodlands and work in historic houses.”


< continued from previous page


canvas from Richard. Bleau couldn’t believe it. “Oh my God, someone who doesn’t know me likes my work!”


Richard asked her to get involved in an exhibition he was putting on to commemorate the ’87 storm and suggested Bleau went to the Ashdown Forest to paint the trees there. At the exhibition she sold one of the pieces she had painted. “From there I found my niche with that style”. Using oil paint, handmade papers, acrylics, tissue papers and natural materials from the woods, Bleau created woodlands within her art, and art within the woodlands. “The message is about the conservation of woodlands and about protecting them for the future, and being more aware about what surrounds us,” she explains. Then she went to a gallery in Tunbridge


Wells for a few months but nothing sold and “they took a huge percentage”. “I did the same thing in Lewes but was becoming lazy and didn’t feel very confi dent.” Next she participated in the fi rst Lindfi eld Arts Festival in 2010 and that’s when everything changed. I told myself: “this is Lindfi eld. You live in Lindfi eld, you’ve just got to do it. See how it goes, if you don’t sell anything just forget about it. If you sell something maybe be a bit more dedicated. Well, I’d sold every piece by two o’clock! I couldn’t believe it.”


continued on next page >


SUSSEX LIVING FOR MID SUSSEX 49 April 2011


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98  |  Page 99  |  Page 100