Leanne Barrett: Painting & Writing

Painting & Writing


Painting: 
My journey began in late 2016 when I made a decision to rediscover my passion for drawing and painting. The first step was participating in the 2017 52-Week Illustration Challenge, created by Tania McCartney

The journey continued by attending intuitive painting classes with Sylvia Marris, displaying my paintings in my first exhibition, Story Time, hosted by SCBWI and participating in online classes by Nina Rycroft.

Most of my paintings are delicate watercolours with ink outlines. They feature landscapes, trees, animals, babies and adventurous hens that are sometimes accompanied by a whimsical duck. If you take a closer look at my natural world and landscape artwork, you might see a bee or ladybird, they seem to find their way intuitively into many of my paintings. 

In late 2021 I found a growing curiosity in creating abstract paintings using acrylic paint and mixed media. To further develop this interest and my skills I joined UK abstract artist Louise Fletcher in her 2022 course, Find Your Joy.  In late 2022 I created my first abstract artwork series, Blue Patchwork, on acrylic paper. 

To see my artwork visit my Art Gallery page or visit my shop where you can purchase some of my paintings, cards and giclee prints.


Writing: 
My current writing projects are creating a new issue of SoulSistersToo and a year long affirmation journey, Soul Reviva,

Soul Reviva is a guided journey to my affirmation deck. Its aim is to help me and other interested creatives to live a more soulfilled creative life through reflection, journaling, collage and actions.

For those of you waiting for one of my picture books, I am taking a hiatus in writing these, including the one inspired by my little Australian Terrier, Jay.

Over many years I have reviewed picture books, board books and non-fiction books for Kids' Book Review, see my reviews here.

I have worked as a Copywriter for Forward To The Future. And in 2019 I was a Roving Reporter for the SCBWI Conference in Sydney.

See my articles How To Make Yourself More Marketable As a Writer with Allison Tait and Valerie Khoo and Masterclass B: Picture Book Illustration 101: Bringing My Dead Bunny Alive


SOULSISTERSTOO:

June 2021 saw the launch of the first issue of my zine, SoulSistersToo. The zine explores what living a soulfilled creative life means to me. SoulSistersToo was written to inspire a reader's own reflection, explorations and creative discoveries via  three overarching zine themes; Soulfilled, Living and Creative.

Soulfilled
On these pages I reveal how I connect with and reflect on the alignment of my body, mind and spirit. I invite readers to take action and co-create.

Living
Discover how I surround my life with joy, beauty, and places or things that light me up. I invite readers to take a deep dive into how to live a more abundant and creative life.

Creative
When choosing to live a creative life, part of the creative process is to share our creations with others. In this section of the zine I share my creative process and moments of serendipity that inspire my creative pursuits.

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