All items by Laura Hughes Therapies

Following my creativity to inspire and support others

I have always loved art, and when I was at school I hoped to become an art therapist. When I got to uni, to study fine art and psychology, I realised pretty quickly that the art course was not for me and I switched onto a counselling and psychology pathway. I focused my energies there and by 2014 I had set up my private practice as a qualified counsellor. But art kept niggling at me. I hadn't had any time or energy for it while I was training, and then life events made it difficult to think about art too. I tried to push art away, for a variety of reasons, but it kept finding a way back to me so I guess it's meant to be in my life! And after all that time I finally realised that art is joy, colour, happiness, life-itself, and I can't live without it!

I started creating again in May 2023 following my attendance at the most wonderful lino-printing workshop. It sparked something in me, and I knew I had to stick with it! Fast-forward to May 2024 and I ran the first session of 'Art Space,' a social art group for creativity, well-being, self-care, and relaxation, in Droitwich Spa. I have also started training in holistic, creative therapies and hope to use creativity in counselling more and more. It's a dream to be able to provide a safe, creative space for people to express themselves, and to be using creativity and counselling together.

I'm still keeping up with my own art-making as well. I hope that some of my creations might offer a little bit of therapy for people in their own way: I know there are times when I have looked at a piece of artwork and it has moved and changed me in some way, either my thoughts or feelings, or it has given my imagination a jump-start and inspired me to create something of my own.

I feel I'm fairly eclectic in my approach to art. My main focus at the moment is lino printing - it's something I'm quite new to but something just clicked when I tried it. 'I felt life in me again' as Gandalf said, and that's kind of how I felt! Something in me lit up and I knew this was something I had to and wanted to do. I like that I can take a static drawing and do something so physical with it - carving it into the lino, inking it up and creating a painted image - multiple painted images! Each one slightly different and unique each time. I also enjoy nature photography - there's so much inspiration to be found in the natural world. I particularly like to photograph trees, leaves and plants. And digital art makes an appearance in my 'collection' too, in the form of badges, notebooks and tea towels, which have been decorated using my digital designs.

My subjects range from nature to fantasy, and there's a fair few images of my dog! I adore colour, but I also enjoy a bit of monochrome - there's beauty in all of it.

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