Fall into Your Dreams

This April marked eleven years since I set out on this creative journey and nine years since I first arrived in Caithness with every intention of working a season here and then leaving again. Well that never happened! I am now a Mrs McDonald and firmly entrenched in our little cottage on the cliffs.

As we are launching my new website this weekend it got me thinking about my story and how in 2009 I had no idea that all of this was ahead of me. All I knew at that stage was that I had a drive in me to create and a knowing that I had to step out of the ordinary and take a dive into the unknown.

And I am so glad I did. I share my story with you below –

Painting professionally since 2009, I have never been happier.

After university a corporate path in IT Project Management was forged – driven by money and status – but it wasn’t ‘me’.

By 2009, what had initially been a hobby and something partaken part-time became a full-blown passion and an unstoppable desire to create. The creative dream had been born and was something I had to pursue, no matter what.

Originally from West Sussex in the south of England, I followed that creative dream to the stunning, rugged and wild far north of Scotland, and eventually to a beautiful 200 year old house on the cliffs in Caithness called Haven House. Yes, she did have that name when we found her.

This beautiful building is now home, refuge, a working studio and the reason for the business name. To get to fall asleep to the sound of the sea and sometimes woken up by the howling winds as they lash the shore and the cottage walls in the winter is wonderful. To see the waves rolling in across the bay or to sit in the morning and see the sparkle on the sea is awe-inspiring, and every day is a blessing.

Back in Sussex, as a little girl, it was Grandma who not only doled out the creative genes but invested her time in teaching me the art of painting, storytelling and sometimes piano playing.

The most important gifts she gave me were not just the love she exuded, but the knowledge that nothing in nature is ever one colour – instead, it’s made up out of many colours and shades. Thank you Grandma.

Now, I follow Grandma’s guidance, as my eye takes in all of the glorious elements of nature.

To really see the many jewel-like colours of the sunlight as it hits the ocean; to watch the sunlight playing on the leaves as they rustle in the breeze; or to be entranced by the continually changing seasons of a landscape, are all ways to transcend the chatter of the mind and elevate the gaze upwards and the heart outwards.

It is later in the studio, once the heart has been sufficiently inspired, that the images and feelings tumble out onto the canvas, and also as a piece of writing to accompany each painting.

Fully established as a full-time artist with multiple stockists, and a business that grows every day: it was but a pipe-dream all those years ago as I toiled in my office jobs.

Fall into your dreams
and watch how the world catches you,
is my advice to you.

Every year that goes by reinforces my knowledge that some risks are worth taking. At times, the creative dream that pushed me from one end of the country to the other was bewildering and terrifying.

But it brought me to a place, both physically and emotionally, that would satisfy and complete me in ways I could never have imagined.

It is my wish that every purchase that you make, whether it is an original painting or an inspired gift, will bring you the same joy and light that was there in the making of it.

It is also my wish that you have the courage to pursue your dreams and the desire to never give up on them no matter how tough it gets.

I am forever grateful for the purchases of my art and my gifts and for the lovely people like you who make my dream a reality.

May you be Led by the Light wherever it takes you… ✨✨