In May 2026, I’ll be exhibiting at Sussex Art Fair, and honestly, it feels both surreal and deeply meaningful.
I am honoured to have been selected to take part in an event I’ve admired from afar for years. It is one of the South East’s best-known independent art fairs, bringing together around 95 exhibitors and thousands of artworks at Goodwood Racecourse.
But this story really starts in 2021.
Shortly after my mum passed away, I found myself wandering around Surrey Art Fair. If I’m honest, I went there partly to distract myself from grief. I needed somewhere to put my mind for a few hours. Somewhere with colour, conversation and possibility.
What I found was more than that.
I met artists who were warm, generous and open about the realities of building a creative life. They shared their experiences, their doubts, their wins, and the winding paths that had brought them there. They probably had no idea how much that mattered to me at the time.
Because when you are grieving, sometimes hope arrives quietly.
That day planted a seed. It made me think that maybe this was something I could be part of one day. Maybe art did not have to remain something private or half-finished. Maybe it could become a real chapter of my life.
And now, five years later, here I am.
To be selected for Sussex Art Fair feels like a full-circle moment. Not just professionally, but personally.
It reminds me that grief changes shape. That difficult seasons do eventually move. That small moments we almost dismiss can quietly redirect the course of our lives.
I’ll be showing work that has grown with me over these last few years. Work shaped by change, resilience, uncertainty, beauty, and the slow process of becoming more myself.
So if you visit in May, know that behind every painting is more than paint. There is history in it. There is courage in it. There is gratitude in it too.
And somewhere in the background, there is a version of me in 2021, walking around an art fair with a heavy heart, not knowing that one day I would return as an exhibitor.
That feels rather special.
