Aaron's Fine Art

Whilst At School I really enjoyed painting.  The mediums used at my school were Watercolour and Pastel, never oils, probably to messy for school kids. I didn’t enjoy many subjects at school and had a short attention span.  The only other subject I really enjoyed was computers. If I remember rightly, I gained an A in art and a good result in Computer science but average grades in all my other subjects.  Some of my paintings from school are framed and on the wall at my parents home.  My parents at the time bought me a beautiful leather artist portfolio which I used to keep all my artwork in, it was full of sketches, paintings, pastel work.  Sadly I lost this folder after leaving college. 

Whilst at school my dream was to become an artist, but I was always told that to make it as an artist was nigh on impossible, it was too competitive. So after hearing all the negative comments I stopped painting and concentrated on computers instead. I went to college and completed a BTEC National in Computer Studies and thought, right I’m gonna go to University. My father drove me all the way down from Lincoln to Portsmouth University, but much to his dismay I decided I wanted to start full time work. At this time I had lost all interest in painting.

My first job was at a company called NAAFI (Navy, Army, Airforce Institute) who supplied the food for the armed forces. I worked in Payroll and admin. It was a nice enough job but I was made redundant after a few years as the NAAFI lost the armed forces contract.  I gained a few temporary jobs in Lincoln but then gained employed with an investment and loans company in Market Raisen. I started in an admin role working nights and then all of a sudden people’s contracts were being finished. One of the Directors said to me don’t worry you’ll have a job. The company were going in a new direction and I was given a supervisors role. One of the company owners also wanted me to work for them on their property on weekends etc, overseeing a few things. So at the time I was working long hours, but was looked after. I was on a good wage and had a nice company car which I only had to pay for petrol. I enjoyed my work, but had no social life. After 3 years of working for the company and no respite on the hours I was working I decided for my health and sanity it was time for a change.  I handed my notice in and moved in with some friends in Nottingham (who I had met whilst working at NAAFI).  They put me up while I got settled in Nottingham and found my own place to rent. I gained work in a business that provided the administration for a mortgage company.  It was very basic pay but I met some nice people whilst there.  At this time I moved into a room in a shared house with a bunch of guys I had never met before. They were a nice bunch and we would occasionally go out for a few drinks. There was one chap me and my dad tried to help, he would bleach his feet and nearly set the house on fire and was asked to move out by the landlady.  The landlady showed me his room and all the walls were covered in soap.  In turns out that he had similar problems when younger and his parents didn’t help him, at the time I tried to help (along with my father) but he kept himself to himself, probably due to all the rejection he had in his life. I pray now that he has received help and hope I bump in to him one day.

At this time as said earlier I worked at an admin company and this is where I met my previous wife.  After working for the company for over a year and no sign of a permanent contract wage increase I decided to look for work elsewhere.  At this time I still had not picked up a paint brush and not even thought about art. I gained work at Nottinghamshire County Council and worked in several departments such as Education and Personnel. My main role was in administration but also called upon because of my IT skills. After being married for 5 years myself and my previous wife separated. We both wanted different things in life and hardly spent any time together (2 separate lives).  Looking back I think I was not mature enough to be married.  After this I went through a year of going out drinking excessively with mates etc, but realised I was starting to get sick of feeling hungover every weekend. I just think I needed to go through this stage in my life to get it out of my system (if that makes sense). After being happily single for a year I fell for a lady called Dawn who I was already great friends with at work.  I wanted to ask her out but was worried about ruining the friendship. I plucked up the courage after going potty for 3-4 weeks, and she said yes.  We are now very happily married. I said I wouldn’t get married again unless it was to marry someone perfect which Dawn is. She is my soul mate and best friend and very beautiful person,

  ( Myself and Dawn on our wedding day )

not only on the outside but the inside. Dawn is the person I want to spend the rest of my life with and I feel I am the most blessed man on earth to be her husband. Before we got married Dawn invited me to her church which I enjoyed but didn’t think I would attend each week.  She then took me to Trent Vineyard. Once I walked in it felt like home and so welcoming. I have now found my faith and believe Jesus is my Lord and saviour. We have been attending Trent Vineyard for 3 years now (find the link on the website) and love to get involved in a lot of work that goes on there and have both made so many new friends.  One thing Dawn and I don’t do is bash people over the head with our faith but we like to pray for people and help out at church and in the community. Hopefully people can see the change in our lives (especially mine). In 2006 I picked up a paint brush again and made a birthday card for Dawn, she loved it and really encouraged me to start painting again.  I started painting again in watercolours and produced a piece for the Patchings Farm Art Exhibition. To my surprise it was selected for the highly commended category. This spurred me on and gave me more confidence to paint again. I produced more paintings using watercolours, one of which Dawn framed and put on the lounge wall.  Dawn then kept encouraging me to paint using oils.  I didn’t fancy it to be honest but I gave it a go. Since trying oils I’ve found that it is my favourite medium to paint with. I’m really enjoying painting again and trying different ideas and styles. Dawn thinks at the moment my strongest subject is flowers.  The painting I am working on at present is a field of poppies which is challenging but it’s slowly coming to life.  In the future I plan to try other subjects and mediums.  I’ve yet to try Acrylics and would like to use pastels again.  Next summer (weather permitting) I plan to take my easel outside and paint the countryside from the village we live in, it’s very picturesque and ideal for painting.  I think at present I’m still searching for my own style and expanding my portfolio but hopefully this will come with time and confidence.  I’ve recently sold two paintings which for me is confirmation that I’m heading in the right direction.  I’m also an avid sports fan (especially Liverpool FC), Rugby, basketball, golf etc so at some stage will have a go at painting my favourite sports stars.  My artwork is on several other websites and a few websites have approached me to display my work which has also boosted my confidence.   Just recently I had a writer contact me through my website who was interested in my work and said he is going to mention me in his book. He has produced several articles for Artist publications and written several books. I’m very excited about this and look forward to reading more of his articles.

For me the fact that people are showing an interest in my paintings is such a blessing, and now I will always paint.  Thanks to Dawn my passion for painting has been rekindled and I’m learning more about painting all the time.  I’m looking forward to trying different mediums and subjects, the only problem is our little cottage might get too full of all my canvases.  

Many thanks for taking the time to look at my artwork. Any feedback either good or bad about my paintings or the website would be greatly appreciated.  You can leave feedback on the feedback and comments page.

                                                                    Thanks and God Bless.