Over Half Term in Leicester I was given the opportunity from SomewhereTo_ to exhibit my work in the city shopping centre the Highcross. They have a campaign called the 'Highstreet Heist' for this Re:Store we used an empty space that has been vacant for quite a while. Along with other creatives we took over on old Virgin store I was given space to display my paintings and stitchwork. 
During this time I was also painting some new pieces within the space which allowed passers by to see me at work and a little of the behind the scenes of my working process. 
On the last day a make up artist Kelly Odell painted me in the style of one of my paintings. It was a really cool experience to see how someone else would interpret my painting style. 

I have been wanting to create some original images to paint from for a really long time. I finally got around to pulling something together and on the 29th of this month I managed to achieve this. 
My inspiration from the shoot was the Ruven Afanador's shoot of the Olsen twins, I wanted a similar style but with fresh new images to work from. I love the use of coke cans as rollers, I fell it brings a real juxtaposition between the vintage and modern. 

I had some fantastic help from the photographer Paul and Gaz from Rococo Imaging who took so many incredible shots, I'm going to have so many to choose from to paint! The gorgeous model is Natasha Vernon who is available to book she is stunning and I'm looking forward to getting to know her face in my painting. Her aunt is the talented Kelly Odell MUA who helped to me to create the look that I wanted. 
A friend of mine Rebecca Griffin aka Betsy Olive helped me with the styling of the shoot . Finally the sudio that we used was Lux Photography a fantastic studio based in the city centre of Leicester was such a great space! 
I'm so looking forward to starting my collection of paintings from this shoot!