Lisa Shearing Summer Dip, acrylic on deep-edged canvas, 8x10in (20.5x25.5cm)
There has never been a time when Lisa has not painted, she says. Even when she had her children, she would snatch time to paint late at night. ‘In 2000, with my three sons’ encouragement, I took part in Channel 4’s Watercolour Challenge,’ she writes. ‘The heat was at Sandown Racecourse and a regional final at Hampton Court Palace. It was an incredible experience with the paintings later exhibited at the Mall Galleries, which was quite a moment! I’ve been lucky enough to have won two art holidays – one in 2006 to the Verrocchio Art Centre in Casole d’Elsa, Tuscany and, to my surprise, another one in 2017 – alife course at the Art Academy Studios in Aubais in France under the expert instruction of Tod Ramos. The latter was phenomenal and I felt very privileged to have had this experience.