Since childhood I always loved to paint and draw, but events took me down a different path. However later life gave me the chance to join a number of local art societies with organised events where my pictures could be displayed. I currently hold the status of Exhibiting Member with two local societies and regularly exhibit close to home in both Winchester and Farnham.

I feel intimate contact with my feelings and emotions around being a woman. The stages in our lives that we all go through, including the waxing and waning of happiness through the years. Feelings that are particularly difficult to articulate in the modern world where the pressures of just Being, are so great. In the society of Social Media, of Clicks and Likes, some feelings and opinions cannot even be spoken about directly, particularly those from the darker side of life. But every woman will understand me, and my pictures can be interpreted by the observer to see what she wants to see, and even what she needs to see in her own situation.

We all wish to be individual, yet we are all so similar. None of us is alone, and we all travel through life with similar dreams, similar goals and similar fears. My latest collection Facial Geometry demonstrates the fractious feelings that we all face as women in the world today, but we will all ultimately find our own way through lifes difficulties towards the light side.

In my imagination, poetry and pictures go hand in hand. Neither can exist as a singular entity and one cannot simply be separated from the other within the creative process. Sometimes the picture is so clear in my minds eye that I simply have to follow this feeling. The picture progresses and the poetry, which has always been present in the back on my mind, flows naturally from the resulting image to complete the project. Equally as often it is the feeling, resulting in the poem, that arrives first with much time spent scanning and re-scanning the words to hone the image they create. Once the words are complete, the picture follows behind, shaped by the words and feelings already penned and always in front of me whilst the picture is forming.

Lara Robins...