Hello everyone My name is Jo-Anne Clarke, and I am an artist living in the North of England. I currently work from my home studio, otherwise known as the kitchen! I have rigged a wall easel and table easels to accommodate my needs, and hopefully, will continue with this instead of having to go back to a dreaded office job, which I have to do to supplement my income from time to time. I do have a website now at www.ja-clarke.com - yipee! Keep going... puff! puff!... Life before more serious painting... For years and years I have worked as an office temp, rarely being out of work, but one day, to my surprise, there were no contracts available. I was feeling quite sorry for myself. I rarely watch daytime TV, but I felt so crushed by my circumstances, that I turned on the TV for 'company' and to my delight, there was Bob Ross, painting happy little paintings. I know that many people complain about how he did this or that, but I think he was a great bloke, and he managed to inspire me to take up my brushes once more, despite my initial efforts being really awful! Some of the work that I do now falls into the 'oh my God... what was I thinking of with this?!', category every now and then, but generally, I really love the work when I get it. The other chap who was really inspirational to me is a man called Eric Wilson. His wildlife paintings are really beautiful. I went along to a talk that he gave, and somehow, his demonstration and talk gave me such a push forwards and helped me to realise that with lots and lots of effort, I could improve. I now know that every brushstroke is a learning process, every day. Thanks Eric. I guess what I am trying to say is that when your back is against the wall, don't give up hope of achieving your dream. When you compare your work to others and feel bad because in your eyes, you are just not good enough, reach inside and find the real you in your work, and then you can see the beauty of who you are, and what your work truly represents. If you cannot find your 'style' and seem to struggle with identity, paint all kinds of things because you are multi-faceted and we are all allowed to create things that are representative of ourselves. Don't stop because someone else thinks that you cannot succeed. Paint a caricature of them to cheer yourself up! If all else fails, eat chocolate and paint some more...