Those of you who tuned in to last night’s episode of Housewives will have seen it was the lovely Leanne’s 40th birthday!

I always think the best gifts are the personal ones so I decided to paint her an abstract.

So what was the inspiration behind the piece?

Leanne was born February and is an Aquarius – the water carrier. This inspired me to use blue hues and aqua tones.

I love playing with texture, so I used layered acrylics and materials like newspaper and cheese cloth, painting over these for the final composition.

Aquarians are curious and affectionate, which is just like Leanne 🙂 I wanted to capture her spirit in the painting and took several images of her, bringing in features like her eyes and full face in areas.

I washed over them lightly and used magazine and newspaper cuttings to feature quotes from her star sign and the odd number 40! You wouldn’t notice this from a distance but it’s a nice detail to enjoy once you’re close up.

I finished with a high gloss varnish, which I feel completed the painting perfectly. Shame it was upside down when Leanne opened it!

I love nothing more than to create artwork which puts a smile on my friends’ faces.