Dream Doer Friday…

each Friday I feature an artisan who is living their dream of doing what they love and creating a life and a lifestyle within their art…

Hilary Bravo creates wondrous things. I am especially intrigued by her papier mache beads.

Please watch the video for a glimpse at how she creates and, more importantly, listen to the way she blends her art into her lifestyle. She personifies the artist entrepreneur I am talking about here on this blog. Yes the porridge may become mixed with the gesso on the kitchen table, but it does not phase Hilary. She has created an idyllic lifestyle for her family in the English countryside. She is a Dream Doer indeed.

Hilary lives and works in Devon, experimenting all the time with different colours and compositions. She takes her inspiration from everything around her, making notes and sketches on the things that catch her attention. She is fascinated with colour and the different emotions that it can provoke.from Rostra & Rooksmoor Galleries

Hilary’s Google Profile

I love teaching and passing on the interesting and inspiring things I have learned in my life.

Colour is my passion as well as discovering new places and rediscovering the familiar.

I probably paint on most days and when not painting, I am taking photographs or writing.

I also really love my own company and “following my nose” so although I don’t always travel alone I will try to spend some of the time on my own. I feel very fortunate to have been able to create a job that I love so much.

I love to explore and discover new places and to return to the places that I already know and love and find endlessly inspiring – Paris, Venice, Capri, Southern France. I go to somewhere that I find fascinating and book into a small hotel and set off to explore. I meet the most incredible people have wonderful conversations, find great places to eat and connect with that sense of excitement that comes with discovery.

Venice for example. Getting up before dawn and going down to the Rialto as the fish market sets up for the day. Or midnight on the waterbus, passing the islands and seeing Venice come into view by moonlight.

Everywhere I go I am half looking for images, impressions, where the light is caught, reflected, especially where the discarded is made magical by light.

I write – poems, songs, stories, essays and research – so many things – from ancient cultures to nanotechnology.

I like to be able to be constantly adding to my understanding of where I have been and see how so many things connect. A conversation with a Chinese man in Eze at a bus stop about the temple to Isis that once stood on the site of a church in Paris. E-mails exchanged, connections made.

Sometimes I go out and take a sketchbook as this enables me to look in a different way and to absorb impressions differently too. There are some wonderful little beaches along the coast path of Cap Ferrat, which are ideal for sitting and reflecting, for writing and painting. And for swimming!

visit her website for a look at her paintings from photos…she has such a unique style…

be sure to subscribe to my free online magazine for creative people at top right…

Are you a Dream Doer? I would love to feature you here so that your story can inspire other artisans to become a doer of their dreams!!! Please contact me…and share some of your story below…