Like all stories my painting journey also started a long time ago, from when I was a little girl and pleaded for a watercolour set, when I saw my dad bring home a watercolour set for my older brother. I demanded that I needed the exact same one and I eventually got it. I really enjoyed drawing and painting as a child, although then it was mostly trying to copy images from Pokémon cards to children's bible characters. I would spend a long time drawing and doodling. A habit that never quite left me. I doodle all the time, if you give me a pen in my hand, within 30 seconds I would have probably started doodling on whatever was in front of me from envelopes, bench-tops to lecture notes. I always felt I concentrated better when I doodled, something my teachers didn't quite understand or appreciate. Believe it or not, I used to even draw on my hand.
I was always creative, thus enjoyed all things creative, which is why I chose to do an Art GCSE. I absolutely loved those 2 years of art GCSE, especially painting themes related to dance, nature and landscapes. I really wanted to do Art at A level, but couldn't as I was already doing 4 A levels and I wanted some free time. My art teacher at the time was not impressed at all, to quote her "you don't need physics to be a doctor, you're wasting an A level, you could easily get an A in art" she said. But then again I didn't need an art A level either for medicine was my initial response, though I didn't tell her that at the time. The thing was I knew I wanted to be a doctor, but I also loved physics too much, therefore chose to keep physics over art as my 4th A Level, as I thought I could always continue painting as a hobby. And I fell in love with physics and understanding how the world works. A lot of people have asked me, why didn't you become an artist? My reply is simple, you can be a doctor who is an artist, but you can't be an artist who is a doctor. So I chose the path in life, where I could use my skill set to the best of my ability and reach my full potential in life. If you haven't guessed by now, I am very ambitious and I want to be both an artist and a doctor.
However, my plan of painting in my spare time didn't quite work out in the first few years of university. It's only in my fourth year of medicine, I started getting back into painting.
My flat mate at the time would not stop pestering me to paint something for her birthday, I just made up excuses at first as usual, but she was very persistent. Eventually after 5 months, I ran out of excuses and decided to gift her a painting. I gifted her a painting 'The colours of autumn', because autumn was her favorite season. I vividly remember, feeling so content after finishing that painting, I realised how much I missed painting that day. Since that day, I have painted more and more, with each one exploring new techniques and constantly improving my skills.
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