Sometimes a painting has a much longer story than you expect, and A World Away is definitely one of those paintings for me.

It actually started with another painting I had created a couple of years earlier called Enchanted Meadows. There was absolutely nothing wrong with it. In fact, I loved it! But as my painting style and skills evolved, I kept looking at it and thinking about what it could become.

When a painting isn’t finished with you yet

Over the last year or so, I have been moving towards creating landscapes that felt richer, deeper and more immersive. I wanted them to feel peaceful, but still have plenty of colour and energy. I wanted to create somewhere you could almost step into for a while.

Every time I looked at Enchanted Meadows, I could see another possibility hiding underneath it, so I did something that always feels VERY scary when you already like a painting… I painted over it!

Not because the original had failed, but because I felt I could take the idea further now. I wanted more depth, more atmosphere and more of that dreamy feeling I had been trying to capture in my work. It became quite an adventure and I really pushed myself, but by the time I finished, I was so happy with what it had become. More importantly, I knew I wanted to paint more like this.

Creating A World Away

The title came quite naturally. I wanted the painting to feel like somewhere that takes you away from daily life for a moment. Somewhere you can escape, regroup and re-centre. A place where there is nothing you need to do and nowhere you need to be. Just a little world that is completely yours.

That’s something I’ve realised I want more and more from my landscapes. I don’t necessarily want to paint real places. I want to create places that feel real enough that you can imagine being there.

Sending it out into the world

I entered A World Away along with three other paintings in the exhibition. I never really enter art prizes expecting to win anything. Art judging is incredibly subjective, and colourful, joyful art isn’t always what judges are looking for. That’s okay with me. I don’t want to change what I paint according to what I think might win a prize. I want to keep creating work that feels like me.

At the opening, though, quite a few people came up to me and mentioned A World Away. They talked about the colours, the depth and how peaceful it felt, which meant a lot because those were exactly the things I had been trying to create.

I also had a market stall nearby that weekend where I was displaying some of my art prints. It was such a strange and lovely feeling when people walked past, looked at my work and recognised me or the paintings from the exhibition they had just visited!

A very unexpected collection day

When I went back to collect my paintings after the exhibition, I wasn’t expecting anything exciting to happen. I had simply turned up to collect them and take them home. I certainly wasn’t dressed for an award photo. 😂

But almost as soon as I arrived, I was given two pieces of very good news. One of my mixed media paintings, Where Ideas Bloom, had sold, and they had just finished counting the votes and A World Away had won the People’s Choice Award!

It all happened so quickly that I didn’t quite know what to do with myself. One minute I was there to pick up four paintings and the next minute one had sold and another had won an award. I was on a slightly different planet for a while!

And yes, looking at the photos afterwards, I did think that perhaps next time I collect paintings from an exhibition I should dress as though something exciting might happen. Lesson learned. 😉

And one more lovely surprise…

As if the afternoon wasn’t already surreal enough, the woman who had bought Where Ideas Bloom happened to be there collecting it at the same time. She was so excited about her painting and wanted us to have a photo together, which made the sale feel even more special.

As an artist, you often create something alone in your studio, send it out into the world and never really know what happens after that. Getting to meet somebody who had connected enough with one of my paintings to take it home was pretty wonderful!

Why People’s Choice means so much to me

Of course it would be lovely one day to win Best Acrylic Painting or another judged award, but I think People’s Choice might actually be the prize I care about most. Those votes came from the people walking through the exhibition, stopping in front of a painting and feeling something. They’re the people I actually want my art to reach.

I create colourful paintings because I want them to bring joy, peacefulness and a little sense of wonder into someone’s day. I want them to offer a moment of escape from all the ordinary noise of life. So knowing that A World Away connected with people enough for them to choose it felt incredibly special.

Perhaps the loveliest part is that the things people mentioned about the painting were exactly what I had hoped to create when I decided to transform Enchanted Meadows in the first place: depth, colour, peace and somewhere you might like to disappear into for a little while.

Trusting where the painting wants to go

I could easily have left Enchanted Meadows exactly as it was. I liked the painting and there was no real reason to change it, except for that little creative voice saying, I think there’s more here.

Painting over something you already like always carries a risk. You might make it better, or you might completely ruin it! But sometimes that risk is where the interesting things happen.

A World Away reminded me to keep trusting that feeling when my work wants to move somewhere new. Having other people connect with the result was the loveliest little confirmation that perhaps I should keep following it.

So that’s exactly what I plan to do. 💗

x mimi

PS: I’d love to hear from you below, please leave me a comment 🙂

• Fellow artists, have you ever painted over a piece you actually liked because you could see another possibility waiting underneath? Did you regret it, or were you glad you trusted the feeling?
• Have you ever seen a painting or artwork and immediately felt that strange little spark of “this belongs with me”??