Lizzie Pannell

My dream was always to be an artist, but when deciding on what degree to take I didn’t have the confidence to make a career out of it. So I got a ‘proper job’ and embarked on a fifteen year career in the media industry as an Account Director.

A few years ago I realised that this role wasn’t making me happy so I took a leap, started painting, and didn’t stop. It was like an old best friend that I’d not seen for 15 years had come back, and I wasn’t about to let it go again.

 For me, painting is all the good emotions. When I paint I feel deeply calm. I often get lost in the detail when working close up on a large scale piece. When I step back and see the whole picture it’s super exciting – like a new world that’s come together one petal at a time. Some of my larger works can take months, there is a lot of layering and contemplation that goes into these pieces. The time I spend on each piece varies vastly. I never set a timeframe on them as, like real flowers, I want them to grow organically.