Nicole Frobusch, is a multidisciplinary artist, born on the 6^th of May 1970 in Muenster, Germany.

A single child, she connected deeply with animals and nature as her companions.

Nicole was very close to her grandmother, who’s stories transported her into different worlds, never quite feeling at home in this one. Her intuition knew there was so much more than what she was told. It made her ask a lot of questions, feeling she needed to uncover and rediscover something far more magical.

At college her psychology teacher handed her the book “The journey to Ixtlan”, by Carlos Castaneda, and that was the start of her spiritual quest at the age of 17.

The path of the indigenous, their connection with the Starnations, animal kingdom, minerals and nature, where all is spirit and sacred, made her feel less lost.

Her curiosity made Nicole study many diverse spiritual traditions and philosophies over the past 35 years, always looking for the golden thread, which unifies the All.

She learned alternative healing methods alongside natural healing through plants and is a Reiki Masters and holder of the Munai Ki Rites, alongside shamanic and the old ways ceremonial and ritual practices.

Nicole grew up between Italy and Germany and moved to London in 1992 after completing her A-levels in Art & Psychology.

In London she became pupil of legendary expressionistic dancer/teacher Hilde Holger and spent years in her basement studio in Camden Town. Performing and teaching contemporary dance and improvisation, she founded her own dance Company “The Akashic Dance Theatre”.

In 1996 she was invited by her friends to join an all-female choir, performing their debut gig in Stoke Newington’s cemetery by candlelight, all dressed in white. They would name themselves The Mediaeval Baebes and signed a record deal with Virgin Classical.

Many adventures were lived, invitations to perform in strange & magical places.

Creativity and seeking to understand what it means to be a conscious human is fundamental to Nicole.

Nature and the Cosmos, symbolism, alchemical transformation, mysticism and the importance of rituals are the inspirations behind her artworks.

Foraging for plant and minerals, earths and fruits to extract their colours and to make them into paints and inks. Inspired by her daughters Nicole completed her Masters with distinction at the Prince’s Foundation School of Traditional Arts in the Summer of 2022. She received the Kairos Award for best hand drawn and sensitive Geometry presented by Gail and Amanda Critchlow.

For her MA she researched the divine feminine, as a response to the lack of inclusion she experienced in the literature and teachings she received.

Focusing on the mediaeval period she looked for craftswoman, geometers, architects, stonemasons, alchemists, visionary females honouring and giving them a voice. Raising the attention to the limits of ingrained behaviour, social, academic and religious inculcation of the feminine.

To recognise the contributions of women from the past and to account for the denial of the feminine, to shine a light on the devaluation and the utter importance and necessity of her inclusion in all fields of academia , religious studies , philosophies and the traditional arts.

Through the trajectory of female spirituality in high and later Middle Ages where thousands of mothers, sisters and daughters were killed. The regulation of sanctity and the inquisitional procedure, as an instrument for assessing and proving, the authenticity of women’s spiritual lives.

Casting doubt on mystical experiences and implementing dreadful accusations and murders.

Nicole created paintings, clay sculptures and ritual water vessels as a response, which were exhibited as part of the degree show at The Garrison Chapel Gallery in Chelsea, London in July 2022. In October Nicole exhibited at the College of Psychic studies “Creative Spirits” alongside an amazing array of fellow and deceased artists.

Momentarily Nicole is living between her home in Hackney and a Shepardess Hut on the welsh border immersed in nature. In seclusion she connects deeply with the land and waters, inspired in creating new work from her experiences.

Hello, I am Sheila Moore and I’m a Medium, Artist and Healer and animal lover (especially dogs). I was born in the war years and brought up by my grandmother near London.  Like most families of that era, we didn’t have much but that was life at that time. As a child I did have a sense of ‘knowing things before they happened’ but I thought everyone did.

I grew up, married, and had two children: and then aged around thirty years things changed.

I had always liked art especially portraiture and I suddenly found that I could draw pictures and then information regarding the picture would come into my mind. Words came into my mind that were sometimes very beautiful, sometimes spiritual, and often giving me information about forthcoming events. I found this all a bit disturbing so acting on the advice of a friend I started to visit the local Spiritualist Church, and that was the start of my spiritual journey. The president was also an artist and he encouraged me to develop this type of art, generally known as ‘Psychic Art’, in a safe atmosphere.

During the years of the family growing up I’m a bit ashamed to say that I treated this gift as a bit of fun. I met lots of gifted mediums and one of them had a connection to the North American Indian Lakota nation. She used to go out and visit her friends there at specific times each year, so I heard quite a lot about them, I even gave one of my dogs, a German Shepherd, an Indian name (Luta). I received a lot of writing (inspirational writing), apparently from Indians and at one point they referred to me as “She who has dogs of the north” which puzzled me as German Shepherds come from Germany.

Then suddenly in 1999 my world fell apart, my husband died unexpectedly, and I was left on my own with thirteen dogs to look after, as we had been involved in the world of showing the German Shepherd Dogs. I lost touch with that friend and my involvement with spiritual things slowed down.

The next few years were very difficult, and then after most of my German Shepherd Dogs had passed on, in 2004 I decided to have a new puppy of a different breed. An Alaskan Malamute, a dog of the north.

Husky followers have a yearly event at Aviemore in Scotland: and I decided to go and have a look. I knew that there was a very spiritual place called Findhorn up on the west coast of Scotland and I could visit there at the same time.

Scotland is beautiful and spiritual anyway but there was something very special about the wild lonely beaches that touched my soul. So, I went to Findhorn and on the way back I stopped at a beach, the sea was wild and there was just one man and his dog there and I knew I had to paint that picture. That was when my personal spiritual life returned.

I began drawing and painting, studying crystals and crystal healing and generally immersing myself in my spiritual life again, only this time, with respect. In 2007 I moved to Norfolk and began to connect with many other people involved in all aspects of spiritual work, I studied Reiki to Master’s Level and also Colour Therapy which combined with the spiritual aspect of the art.

Healing was my main interest at this time and using colour and pictures to help people became a useful asset. I would paint a picture and a few days later words would come into my mind. I would then produce cards and leaflets from these pictures and words, and I did regularly use the picture of Findhorn for this  with a written meditation.

In 2014 a local event was being organised whereby artists could open their homes for people to come and view their work, and also see the artists actually working, so I joined in. I felt strongly impressed to draw a cardinal, a man of the church, and spent some time doing just that, but I made the mistake of drawing a modern cardinal. I could feel energy coming from the picture and the words Juan and Pedro came into my head. So, I asked, “Who are you” and the name Rodriguez came straight back. After doing some research I found that in 1481 an artist called Juan Rodriguez de Segovia painted a picture of Cardinal Pedro Gonzalez de Mendoza. I felt that for a while that artist was influencing the way I was drawing and painting and like most artists of that time their work tended to have religious connotations. It was also the point when I realised that I needed to write about these events and so began ‘Unexpected Art And Words of Spirit Wisdom’ my first spiritual book. It was published in 2016 in America by Balboa Publishing, and the book they produced was beautifully done but perhaps a bit too large. There is a Kindle version.

Throughout these years I had joined a group of people who sat in circles for mediumship and trance, and we all had spiritual helpers or ‘guides’ as we like to call them. One of mine was an Indian Chief called ‘Chief Little Wound’ and he was seen clairvoyantly by several people when we were in our groups. I found him on the internet, and he was a chief of the Oglala tribes which were part of the Lakota Nation so that Indian contact was returning to me and supporting me when I spoke in circle.

I have always enjoyed taking part in events that involve all aspects of spiritual work: we usually refer to them as Mind Body and Soul events. I was at one of these events in 2017 and was showing many of the portraits that had come through to me to some ladies. There was one picture of a young man who looked like a lawyer and one of the ladies said, “I know who that is, it’s Wilberforce”. I was stunned. I said, “Do you mean William Wilberforce, the abolitionist?” She told me that it was exactly what she meant. Many of the pictures were of people from the past and I had wondered why that was. A selection of these pictures can be seen on my website.

I then started researching some of these portraits and my next book started coming to life. Throughout the next four years I received contact, through pictures, from many people that had been enslaved and there were times when I had to stop work because the emotional effect was too great. That is why it was given the title ‘My Soul: Enslaved’ as that is how I felt. There was also contact from people who had been the slave masters and saw nothing wrong in it.

One incident in particular stands out. Bearing in mind that mediumship is a contact with the spiritual world each medium will have their specific way of receiving that contact. I draw the pictures and I physically feel the emotions coming through. I felt the need to draw, and it was a young woman, she indicated that she was from the island of Dominica and referred to herself as ‘Mulatto’. Suddenly a wave of intense fear came over me, I realised that it was coming from her, and it was directed at my dogs. I had three at that time. I didn’t understand then but made a point of sending healing to her and the situation and settling things down. Much later when I was researching those islands it was mentioned that one of the punishments suffered by the slaves was to be thrown from a cliff to the wild dogs below.

Every picture in the book had a purpose and carried a spiritual message in some way. Some were quite unusual and took my research to areas that are not often mentioned when slavery is discussed. I was also very grateful to the many people who gave me snippets of information and took an interest in what I was doing. This book was published at the end of 2019 just when various events were bringing slavery back into question. I didn’t want to get involved in the rather heated arguments that were taking place and so I didn’t advertise it too much.  I believe, that at this point in time, the way I work with the psychic art is a bit unusual, but it blends well with my own health and abilities just now.

When we had the shutdown for Covid all our events stopped as did everything else. Many people started using the ‘Zoom’ streaming platforms and I had the opportunity to get involved with some people in America. We were in contact every week and I started to receive lots of pictures relating to the subjects we were studying together which tended to be somewhat Shamanic. We studied the gods and goddesses and deities that meant a lot to other people around the world including my slaves. One of the modules was a study of the ‘White Buffalo Woman’ so I was back with my North American Indians again. She is very important to them. You will find that many people who do psychic/spiritual art will draw pictures of these Indian people and my feeling is that their way of life is very spiritual.

I know several people who make the leather drums and rattles similar to those used in their ceremonies and meditating to those sounds is very popular as well.

I and some of my friends had begun to use sound and music to express spiritual feelings and were using gongs and pipes and rattles as well as other musical equipment. These events are known as ‘Gong Baths’ and I found vibrations very helpful from a healing point of view. These, too, are streamed on Facebook and YouTube. I also tried the sounds made from Crystal bowls and Tibetan bowls.

I certainly enjoy them and painted this picture as an expression of the effects I felt, as sound can bring pictures to the mind and transport you to other places.

I love to encourage other people to try psychic art and there is a free book to download on my website with helpful advice and instructions. Please go ahead and have a try.

Born in 1957, and brought up in suburban Bexleyheath, it was the 1960s! The mainstream psychedelic, anti-materialism was becoming jaded and faded, but like a dying star blasting off its last layers of incandescent gas, there were the few golden years of innovative Rock Music remaining, with their fabulous gate fold album sleeves and an all-pervasive atmosphere of medievalism, surrealism and science fiction seen through the lens of late Victorian/Edwardian sensibilities. Living a quarter of a mile from William Morris’s Red House, I’m sure Psychic Geography played its part in my early inspirations.

Imagine our joy at school when our fencing master, exasperated, exclaimed “It’s meant to be an Olympic sport, you look like Victorian gentlemen duelling!” (and yes, that was the very flamboyant, very Spanish, British Olympic Fencing Coach teaching us at Bexleyheath Comprehensive…. ‘those were the days’)

Magic certainly filled the air, and whilst still at school I started to experience weird, ecstatic out of body experiences. I was approached by someone from the local Spiritualist Church and asked if I would like to join their sessions. I certainly hadn’t mentioned my strange internal experiences, had I inadvertently wandered into someone else on the Astral Plane? Or perhaps it was just my looking like a Biblical Prophet? It was an image I was carefully cultivating, and the height of fashion at the time!

I quickly found myself in a regular ‘Development Circle’ with some of the top Spiritualist Mediums in the country. The aim was to develop and practice Trance Mediumship, the complete taking over of the body by ‘another self’. In the Spiritualist belief system, this would be the spirit of someone who had ‘passed over’ and was usually known to someone else in the circle. The spirit would offer up proof as to their identity, by giving information that would only be known by them and the relevant sitter, or could be researched later. The purpose was mainly to provide the comfort of showing that there was an afterlife, but often advice was given regards an earthly concern. Clairvoyance was also practiced, where the medium, in a trance state, sees visions and receives information, again hopefully relevant to someone else in the circle. Other phenomena sometimes occurred where a distressed spirit might break through, or some kind of non-human entity, such as a pagan god or Angel.

The most striking thing about these sessions was how seemingly highly grounded ‘ordinary people’ could take on a persona and describe different times and places in great detail with great poetic eloquence. The relaying of private shared knowledge was often spectacularly accurate, but has been explained away as Cold Reading, a technique used by Stage Magicians. Another explanation, which does away with a spirit world, is that telepathy is taking place, still an ‘out-there’ explanation, but perhaps not quite as far out.

Cold Reading requires intense observational skills, and a lot of practice to be convincing. Perhaps some people have it as a natural skill? I am certain the clairvoyants I saw working at very close range were certainly not out to deceive. In conclusion, very strange things happened, certainly at a cerebral level and sometimes a physical level as well.

I was beginning to feel the need to share all this weirdness (more accurately Wyrdness in the Anglo-Saxon sense) but I couldn’t see how. And then on April Fools Day 1976, Max Ernst died, and a number of his paintings appeared in an obituary in an early evening magazine TV show. This was a revelation to me, as the images (even on the small screen) captured exactly the visions and feelings I experienced in the seance room. I threw myself into researching Surrealism and went to see Dali’s Metamorphosis of Narcissus at the Tate Gallery, which confirmed my conclusion that oil painting was to be the next stage in my investigations into what I think can be described as ‘The Greater Nature’, without limiting it to any belief system.

(By the way, my use of the word ‘Wyrd’ (as opposed to weird) is to signify a more specific meaning - something between the conventional meaning and something akin to the Chinese Tao, a concept from Anglo Saxon Shamanism. For more see Brian Bates).

At that time, the degree to which Spiritualist and other traditionally occult methods had been used in Surrealism was not widely known. Any inkling of a belief in discarnate intelligent entities was getting a bit close to religious belief, an anathema to that particular group of card carrying Communists. The early thinking was surprisingly systematic, rooted as it was in Psychoanalysis. Jung’s Analytical Psychology derived from Psychoanalysis, and far more spiritual in my opinion is, I think, a better fit, certainly with Symbolist Art, which I believe is a forerunner of Surrealism. Arnold Bocklin was an influence on Ernst. The hidden hand of occultism behind Surrealism has now been fully exposed in literature. Of particular interest to me was Kenneth Grant’s observation of the similarities between Dali’s methodology, Paranoid Critical Method and Accommodations of Desire, with the full-on magical practice of Austin Osman Spare. Interestingly, Spare used Psychoanalytical terminology as well as terms from Spiritualism and witchcraft to describe his system, but called Freud and Jung, Fraud and Junk, possibly due to the link made between Depth Psychology and Surrealism with which he had fundamental disagreements with.

(Incidentally, Austin Osman Spare’s objection to Surrealism, was the idea that an Artistic training would stand in the way of ‘pure psychic automatism’. Spare thought a high level of competence was required to obtain meaningful results, at least to other people, a position borne out by Dali’s highly competent and successful work. Or that in other media, such as jazz improvisation, a high level of skill produces the more startling results).

Perhaps paradoxically, I had gained a place at Imperial College to study Life Sciences. The College was then the High Temple of evidence based scientific investigation, with a total dedication to a constantly evolving mathematical - often statistical - model of the physical world. Upon graduation, I had hard wired into me the scientific method, which has proved ever useful in my later ‘spiritual adventures’ and an ability to draw from life after hours of accurate drawing of biological specimens.

By now (around 1977) I had realised that Surrealism was actually a philosophy for life which I had adopted, which combined in me with a cynicism so extreme that I came to totally mistrust cynicism itself! The constant ‘What if?’ is key to my artistic endeavour, which has always felt like a scientific investigation into the ‘Wyrd’ and the beautiful.

At that time, a massive cultural shift occurred, just down the The Kings Road, as it happened. Punk culture changed everything, or perhaps the rise of Thatcherism, which swept away the last vestiges of bucolic 60s utopianism. The Loadsamoney era had arrived.

I had by now taken the, what then appeared to be the mad idea of becoming a full time professional ‘Artist’. I worked hard on my painting ability and automatic drawing technique as described in Spare’s Book of Pleasure. I had by now discovered Symbolist Art, with its deep occult roots and Victorian Fairy painting which was a serious genre in its day and foreshadowed both Symbolism and Surrealism. Another important influence were the largely anonymous, agricultural naïve paintings, often of animals, which had unintended but revealing surrealistic twists. This work, once housed in a large gallery in Bath, was of particular interest, as these were self-taught representational Artists, often sign writers or rat catchers!

By then, I had somewhat outgrown Spiritualism, and now was experimenting with Qabalistic practices, Tarot and particularly the Enochian System of magic set out by Dr John De, occult advisor to Elizabeth 1^st and Sir Edward Kelly, principally an Alchemist. All of this I did now in the service of Art. I also completed a three year course in Hypnotherapy and Psychotherapy in the mid-1980s, and continue to study the more obscure roots of Visionary Art to this day.

Initially, I had success with The Portal Gallery in Bond Street, The Garden Gallery in New Cross Gate, and I secured solo exhibitions in Moscow, Amsterdam and London.

My most recent outings have been eight paintings in the recent Creative Spirits exhibition at The College of Psychic Studies (in the Conan Doyle room) and a solo stand at the Winter Olympia Art and Antique Fair, representing Messums St.James’s, both during November last year. Incidentally, as was evident in the recent Creative Spirits exhibition, there are obviously two main strands of spiritual art: the trained and the spontaneous, more ‘Art Brut’ type of work, but there is of course room for both!

A relatively full CV is on my section in the Messums St.James’s website, along with images of all my work in my 2020 exhibition at Bury Street. The high-quality printed catalogue for that exhibition is available from the Gallery (I am down to my last copy!)

My latest work is incorporating psychedelic elements, referencing back to the 1960s as the era initiated in the mid-1970s seems to have run its course, and projects such as The Spiritual Arts Foundation gather traction.

There are two subjects that have played a major role in my life: art and spiritual experience. Both have remained with me, growing in importance and frequency as the years have gone by. My first experiences between the ages of six and seven featured episodes of sleep paralysis, clairaudience, and clairsentience. I took an inquisitive interest into these strange experiences, and after school I would study at the local library, reading through books regarding the paranormal.

At the age of nine, I tragically lost my best friend and neighbour, and from that moment on we began experiencing unusual amounts of paranormal activity at home. Later in my teenage years, I began seeing spirit clearly, and over the decades I have spoken at length about the spirits I've encountered. There is never one kind, and they always appear in different ways, sometimes rather out of context.

In my twenties, I was invited into various private spiritual development groups by other established mediums that I had met. However, it was during my years at university that I was able to fully explore my past, and began combining it within my love for creating art. My art processes from childhood have expressed different styles of automatism, and over the years I have developed in my own unique approach and style, combining psychic mediumship with art production. My work expresses itself mainly through trance-based spiritual contact with the help of spirit guides. This technique I hid for many years under the guise of surrealism.

During my development, I have constantly pushed experimentation in my works, to disconnect them from myself and what I define as my ego conscious mind. This I believe has allowed the higher energies to more easily flow through me to express themselves. My spiritual drawings and automatic writings begin with my entering a trance-like state in which I allow words and faces to appear, emerging from those energies I sense that want to be heard and seen. The drawings themselves develop from automatic writing, and have an almost 3D depth to them, often including very detailed and delicate imagery that I begin to perceive within the automatic marks made. I have related these deep environments that spirit show themselves through as having dimensions and energies within them that we don't see or understand. My works are often mixed media, depending on my process as the automatist. Over time, I often re-visit my automatic drawings, and after some reflection, I may add to the works. Due to this process, I rarely refer to my works as having reached a definitive completion.

My automatism paintings are often created by igniting chemicals, and by doing this I have found that spirit imagery transpires. I reflect on the imagery, and work further details into the paintings with a grisaille technique. When drawing, I usually use traditional materials such as pencils, erasers and various paper weights. My process has refined and developed with my drawings and automatic writings in that I freely allow myself to be in a trance state, but never to the point of loss of self. I have recently been informed that the balance tends to be myself and the spirit working together on a 50/50 basis. I usually prefer to work in isolated locations, away from any distractions, but lately I have found I can fall into a receptive state almost anywhere, and at a rapid rate.

As for the future, my work with spirit continues to deepen, exploring ever more puzzling imagery. I feel that with each work I create, I am edging towards something ever more profound, and I sense that the progression of my works reflects this feeling. Spiritually, I meet different guides ever more clearly.

I recently had archived works on show at The College of Psychic Studies in London, an institute I am very grateful to be affiliated with and privileged to know the lovely people within. Walking around studying the archives of my predecessors, I find myself musing upon the lives of all the artistic and professional mediums that have come and gone throughout the years. All of them were on the same path as I, catching glimpses of the other side. And I reflect on the thought that I am just another peace in the jigsaw. Perhaps in another hundred years or so, another like myself will be reflecting on the creators of these archives, adding their own pieces to this beautiful puzzle.

Antonella Sands is a versatile London-based artist, illustrator, and educator, as well as a trainee art therapist. She works on various projects (including book illustrations) and portrait commissions.

She believes creativity is the key to unlocking our inner selves and well-being, and that it connects us to our true selves.

Art and self-expression are her core passions. She developed a fervent love for drawing and art at an early age with a special fascination for people and surrealistic, fantasy imagery.

Antonella is a mixed media artist; she uses a variety of mediums, including acrylic, pastel, watercolour pencils, and inks. Although she experiments with a variety of materials, she predominantly uses pencils and acrylics. When drawing, she attempts to express the beauty of the the unseen which lies beyond conventional forms.

Through experimenting, trying things out without knowing where it will lead, discoveries can be made, connecting her with the subconscious mind, which is part of the creative process.

Her rich sources of inspiration are myths, legends, fables; these influences are diverse and include a love for literature, photography, theatre, and fashion.

“My art is an expression of my soul journey: it incorporates personal stories, memories, states of mind, and dreams”.

Creativity has allowed her to visualize and transform experiences, memories, and feelings through the process of creating artworks; connecting to her spirituality and helping her to cope with distressing experiences and difficulties she’s dealt with since an early age. She recalls drawing small paper fairies, as a child, and releasing them from her balcony, hoping they would come back to take her to their magical kingdom, rescuing her from her pain. This cathartic process helped her to cope with stressful events.

Art has been an outlet to explore and enhance her wellbeing and has enabled her spiritual needs to be explored and expressed. Antonella is passionate about promoting creativity and self-expression to enable others to better their mental health, especially those who suffered from trauma, distress, mental health issues, and adverse childhood experiences.

She works as an early years consultant and has been teaching in different educational backgrounds for 25 years, promoting self-expression and creativity; leading creative workshops and projects with families, children, and early years leaders in their communities.

When working with children with physical disabilities, trauma, or behavioural challenges she uses sensory activities to enhance all five senses, strengthening skills such as hand-eye coordination as well as helping people to make sense of their personal experiences. When working with children with trauma and emotional difficulties; she uses activities like “paint your emotions” to promote self-healing and self-regulation.

She has a keen interest in psychology and neuroscience, especially the connection between early years attachment and brain development. This led her to study art psychotherapy at master’s level, which acts as a bridge between her love for art and self-expression, and her commitment to helping vulnerable people using a psychotherapy-informed approach.

Those from disadvantaged backgrounds are more exposed to toxic stress which impairs the nervous system’s optimal functioning, creating issues for development, behaviour, and mental health. The use of art materials in therapy allows meaning making through the process of self-expression, which allows people to access the subconscious mind and convey distressing emotions that are too painful to be verbalized.

Antonella is passionate about promoting creative approaches to enhance mind-body and brain healing, connecting us to our subconscious and helping us to make sense of our stories, strengthening our sense of identity.

Her children’s book “Dreams in a box”, published on Amazon in 2016, was the result of an unusual dream: in 2014 she dreamt a rhyming story for children. Later, she translated her dream into an illustrated story, giving voice to her subconscious self and her inner world.

Dreams in a Box celebrates every child’s unique dream and their potential to achieve it. It is designed to promote children’s true potential and self-confidence and to enhance their wellbeing. The book supported children in need charities.

Amongst her projects, in 2020 she worked on a collaboration with multilingual author AM Hellberg and illustrated two of her fiction books Hug-Snow Days and when Pat Met the Curry Cat.

In 2022 and 2020 she received the Ian Wright graphic Award 1st prize with her artwork “Angel of Peace” and “Four Seasons” from Harrow Art Society’s President, Cheryl Gould.

These works were created as a result of the artist connection with her own spirituality and subconscious, exploring the concept of transformation.

“Four seasons” was inspired by a 1920 picture of a lady. The sense of calm and melancholy that it emanated prompted Antonella to start sketching the eyes and recreate her own version of it.

Later, she incorporated different elements of nature and its seasons in an unusual montage: the lady of the drawing had become the cyclic seasons of nature, through a cathartic process of transformation.

“The eternal cycle of the seasons reminds me that nothing really dies and that life renews itself constantly”.

Angel of Peace was created during lockdown – a time of uncertainty and confusion, but also a time to reflect and meditate, to heal our soul. The artwork attempts to bring healing, peace, and brotherhood in a broken society. 

In 2019 her artwork Soul Retrieval was awarded the second prize by Harrow Art Society’s President, Cheryl Gould.

This artwork involved the artist’s painful journey during her childhood; she gave voice to her subconscious by allowing whatever symbol came to mind to be represented in the portrait, sketching different elements as part of her personal story. The process of “soul retrieval” gave her the opportunity to re unite her older self with the younger version of her, during a process that, despite being at times challenging, brought balance, self-acceptance, and wholeness.

In 2017 her painting Angel of Silence was awarded second prize by international artist DashiI Namdavov at the event if I can in Harrow.

Antonella also worked as a fashion designer and illustrator in Italy, her native country.

She is mainly a self-taught artist, and as part of her professional development she attended short courses in Fashion illustration using Photoshop with City Lit and Fashion Design and Marketing at Central Saint Martin College of Art and Design.

Antonella is a member of different art societies and takes part in their annual exhibitions and projects in London, where she lives; her work has also been featured in local newspapers and magazines.

The most recent creations by Eugenia Maggi propose a connection with dreamlike and ethereal worlds: shapes, colours, movements accompanied by sounds that represent a soft, harmonic and light dimension of existence. They invite calm, to live in the present moment, to meditation and self-knowledge.

Her illustrations oscillate in the spectrum of visionary and psychedelic art, with an altruistic imprint: the search for healing and transformation, both personally and for those who encounter her work.

“I trust in the power to change our life circumstances by changing the way we think”, is one of the mantras of her artistic expressiveness and also a philosophy of her life.

The path that brought her here was built through intense experiences, the investigation of the psyche, meditation and some transcendental experiences with sacred plants, mushrooms and psychedelic therapies.

The inner girl who seizes the pencil and loses track of time every time she draws, Eugenia grew up surrounded by rivers and a markedly wild ecosystem, considering the short distance that separates her from the capital of Argentina. In the Tigre Delta, the islanders move in boats, there are no streets or paths that connect each of the islands, and the special climate of this wetland has favoured the presence of plant and animal species from subtropical environments in a southern region.

In that environment some things were missing, but the gifts were a great connection with nature and an uncensored invitation to let your imagination run wild. Her father had shamanic training, he played the tarot and was her first teacher in this art that she practices today and has integrated into her creative universe.

Her mother, an actress, felt at that time a special ability to connect with beings from other dimensions or extraterrestrials, so that mystical and supernatural experiences were recurring themes during her childhood.

The magic of the island was later manifested with the arrival of Jorge Gumier Maier, who moved to the same creek when Eugenia was 17 years old.

She did not know it yet, but she had met a very important Argentine artist and curator, who promoted a space in the Rojas Cultural Center that was the most important art gallery of the '90s in Buenos Aires.

Jorge suggested that she be his assistant, Eugenia began working in his workshop and collaborated with his samples for several years. Together they painted pieces of wood or plastic that the tide brought and he rescued, but at that time she had a very figurative and realistic interpretation of art, and she did not understand what Jorge was doing, she thought it was crazy.

When she finally attended the exhibition of what he did with all the items she collected from the river, the idea of ​​art that she had flew through the air.

She found a totally different aesthetic concept: she tapped into an unimagined sensory delight in discovering that you could create beauty from something completely abstract and build new things from there.

Jorge not only marked a milestone in her artistic path and in her aesthetic perspective, but he became her family and one of the most important people in her life.

During those same years, within the framework of formal education, he studied Fine Arts in Buenos Aires, where he acquired new tools and techniques of expression.

Later, she trained as a Web Master and motivated to achieve an economic livelihood that would overcome the scarcity of her first years of life, she enrolled in the Advertising career, although that environment was not comfortable for her and she interrupted those studies a few subjects after graduating.

She then carried out a transforming workshop with the plastic artist Paula Duró, also in Buenos Aires, which provided her with a very free space where each one developed her artistic projects.

Based on the tarot that she learned from her father, she studied the technique of Alejandro Jodorovsky, a Chilean writer and filmmaker who uses the Marseille tarot cards as a therapeutic tool for psychological self-knowledge and to heal, without seeking to predict the future. .

Later he was trained as a companion of Evolutive Breathing, a practice close to meditation or mindfulness that uses conscious breathing and inquiry techniques, aimed at self-discovery, creativity and the integration of thoughts and emotions, in order to live more present, healthy and connected with our desires and purposes.

Already in adulthood, her mother, who suffered from schizophrenia, left the house where she lived and to this day they continue to look for her. It is an episode that left a strong mark on her history.

Eugenia entered a state of deep depression and, following the recommendation of traditional medicine, she was treated with psychoactive drugs, but she felt dull and absent. Faced with the possibility of being trapped in that circle, alternative therapies emerged as a way out.

Guided by a shaman, she participated in a ceremony a sacred plant from the Amazon characterized by seeking the expansion of consciousness. The trip was very strong and provided him with a deep healing, of great transmutation of pain, with visual experiences where deities were presented that made him feel protection, infinite love and that his existence had meaning.

Many of the images in his work have to do with this expression of love and the guides that appeared on that journey. This transformative experience also allowed him to make the decision to see the world, leave his native country and head to New Zealand.

From then on, trips to different regions began to be more frequent, including Southeast Asia and much of Europe.

He has lived for several years in London, where he worked for a time as an artist in Camden Market, and then in Barcelona, ​​where he currently resides.

Thus, travel became one of his main sources of inspiration, the various forms of deities and spiritual guides of the cultures of each region, as well as the fauna and flora, which are very present in his work, generate a lot of peace and represent at the same time, a great refuge.

Also experimentation with psychedelic therapies, mushrooms, yoga or meditation, which give him access to a deeper dimension of the mind, to the subconscious, from where a large part of the images he creates are born and are always linked to a search for fulfilment. in the present moment.

Psychomagic is another element that flies over his imagination and finding a deeper meaning to existence fascinates him. In Thailand, for example, tattoos are also elements of protection.

In the same way, Eugenia likes to think that her creations can have some power, that they can help other people or protect them, just because whoever has them chooses that they do. "And faith makes that work, like a holy card," she explains.

Through all these influences, and although she continues to go through situations of anguish, anxiety or other emotions in her daily life, Eugenia has achieved a deep confidence in the power of transformation that we have when we focus on building new ways of defining ourselves, how we think ourselves and how we treat ourselves.

“As I was being kinder to myself and treating myself with more love, I was developing a healthier bond with myself. I feel that my reality has been profoundly transformed, and it continues to happen as long as I continue to trust in it and work on myself”, she reflects.

The materials that she has used throughout her career range from pencils, watercolours, acrylics, ceramics, painting on paper or canvas, to print designs for different surfaces.

But today she works almost entirely digitally, on an iPad Pro with tools like Procreate and After Effects.

She finds that multimedia is a very friendly support to be able to create animations, incorporate music or make 3D objects.

She recently began to paste up, a street art technique that consists of leaving stickers of her illustrations in public places.

This returned a more tangible dimension to her drawings, which allows her to interact with people when she hits them, to talk, to know what causes them what they see.

And on these stickers she is also applying augmented reality, through a QR code that each illustration has, with which people can use social networks and see the filters that each of the works has.

Among her next challenges are the animation of meditations and drawing and live animation where the support is the city itself.

Jayne’s arrival at the canvas was almost as if overnight, a shift, a ‘stepping into’ occurred. This shift happened in the midst of working with an energy healer for deeper answers to chronic pain and dis-ease, present by this point for more than 15 years.

Some years prior, Jayne had explored meditation, oracle cards and trained in Reiki, gaining knowledge of energy healing and the etheric body, and reconnecting to a childhood recognition of something bigger.

The energy healer Jayne worked with used spiritual guidance, developing her own flow for healing others, and often received direct messages and visions. One such vision was of Jayne painting planet-wide with a connection deep into the earth and out into the Universe.

Jayne had never explored painting due to ‘art wounding’ and inner beliefs of not being good enough, so she just smiled at the idea, not thinking it could be a reality.

During the years of bringing up her children, Jayne explored connections of a spiritual nature, stepping in and out of allowing, letting earthly life have the priority until needing desperately to find answers for healing. Being open to anything and a few months after the healing vision, Jayne saw a woman on social media, Flora Aube talking about her online course Painting with the Divine Feminine.

This was Jayne’s first recollection of saying ‘Yes’ from deep within, no mind at this point, just higher self. It took courage to send ‘real’ money through the ether for something physically intangible and join a circle of women from all over earth, but trust was there gently whispering and taking her hand. Jayne now recognises this experience as a soul led screaming to say yes and just do it!

From contact with Flora Aube’s’ The Art of Allowing, Jayne met another artist Michal Shimoni - these women, along with many sisters in art circles from all over the world, became her mentors and teachers.

The connections Jayne knows were universally placed - it is too short a time in a few words to write about the divinely led paths that opened up - but she says that soul led listening, trust and love through painting have completely changed her life, with the canvas becoming a reflection of life going forward.

Facing a blank canvas was like standing on the edge of a void, needing trust to step forward and place the first mark. The fear was real. The ugly ‘I can't stand this’ phase, in each painting real, the trust needed to step through each layer real, communing with ego real, realising until ego is recognised, tamed and loved, you cannot receive with love into the heart what appears on the canvas.

There were times when Jayne couldn’t comprehend she had painted the image with the story, this is how she knows there is an artist inside every soul, for her the art inside is the potential. So many people have said to her ‘I could never do that’, but Jayne always smiles knowing they hold that potential. With a quietening of ego and inner critic, a welcoming of the breath, listening, trust and love for the self, an inner guidance can flow forward.

This inner guidance in turn can flow down through the brush, for the potential to move to the canvas with the most surprising outcome. Jayne expresses that the ‘art of the art’ is the centering, the breath and the heart connection, and that during the process, a depth of truth can be revealed. She says ‘truth within ourselves when met and witnessed with purity becomes external truth laid onto canvas’.

There was a point Jayne stepped into where she felt the images, energy and stories were being channelled. She never knew what was coming, and to this day, she never plans or pre sketches a painting. She will breathe, meditate then follow her higher guidance.

Painting in this way, Jayne has discovered you are often not physically at the canvas. She has chosen not to fight ‘not painting’ and does not feel the drive to paint without connection to the higher self, so when spirit is quiet then patience and self-love must prevail.

Jayne says it took some time, inner battle, frustration and reflection of life to find patience and love, and then there were tears of recognition that this IS the journey of awakening to our spirituality, reflected back. Jayne has received the deep support of sisters and mentors and has been gifted the opportunity to return this loving support, especially whilst completing facilitator training for the Art of Allowing which ran very deep in 2020.

This type of work is huge and is happening in many parts of the world through many mediums, but is kept mostly within ‘safe’ circles due to the risk of wounding on stepping into the more mainstream areas. It takes bravery to be seen whole, you feel naked and vulnerable, but without moving into new witnessed spaces how can the light, love and trust flow forward?

Diving Deep was painted on a universally guided trip taken in 2019, Jayne’s first true experience of a self-manifestation. She met with both her art facilitators who just ‘happened’ to have planned to come to Europe from the USA and Israel to Spain, to hold an Art of Allowing retreat.

It’s hard to put into written language the process of a painting, from its completed point, another space that never truly arrives, and certainly if it does, not with ease, which again reflects our spiritual journey that never truly ends. The painting holds the energy of the physical and soul journey Jayne experienced through the laying down of the soul skin onto the canvas after a meditation based on Dr Clarrisa Pinkola Estes seal-skin story, to the finding of the deep peaceful Buddha energy that eventually filled the canvas (and Jayne!).

There was a communication as an internal flight, deep into the waters of discovery and exploration. The inner being reflected the experience of tasting a freedom, a love within a sister circle that Jayne had not yet experienced. She says if she hadn’t followed what she now recognises as a soul yes spirit communion, what she now holds so deep and wide in her art and spiritual journey would not have materialised.

On returning to home space, when asked if she’d had a good time Jayne’s answer was always ‘life changing’ for the combination of art, sisterhood, music and the ocean had opened her to love and spirituality, trust, joy and laughter through a doorway she could never have had imagined, and since meeting with herself at the canvas Jayne does not doubt Spirit or Soul. She listens to the deep knowing and recognition of something beyond.

Having her sovereignty and queendom revealed through the canvas, Jayne has a yearning to invite others pulled to spirit and soul, to some moments of breath, inner stillness and connection with the self, potential and inner artist. It is her deep belief we are all artists and healers, waiting for a doorway, portal, and the invitation from the heart to say YES.

Lorraine describes her paintings as metaphorical mindscapes that materialise from a profound desire to share with others the awe she feels for the natural world. It is a wonderment fuelled by interests in both the natural sciences as well as in the metaphysical realms of fantasy and imaginary realism.

To Lorraine they are intertwined, she believes that to acquire an understanding and appreciation of the earth and its ecological systems and to be cosmically curious is to inevitably bring oneself closer to spirituality, for an awareness of the interconnections throughout the natural world cannot be held without an awareness of ones being beyond the self. To be curious of our place in ‘the grand scheme of things’ is to recognise an identity beyond the ego and to surrender to the mystery of the unknown and unknowable.

Natured and nurtured amid the tranquil surroundings of rural Eastern England, an affinity with the natural world was perhaps inevitable for this artist. A self-confessed dreamer Lorraine admits that she has always lived with her head not far from the clouds both literally and metaphorically speaking!

Much of her childhood was spent out of doors cycling, walking, and climbing trees. Lorraine describes herself as a quietly observant and escapist child who loved to read, write, and draw. Her creative abilities and drawing skills were recognised by a high school art teacher who encouraged Lorraine to pursue an artistic path.

In adulthood she trained in the visual arts, contemporary dance, and aerial circus arts. She went on to have a varied performing career in theatre, circus and later in stunt wing walking. Alongside this she produced her first professional body of artwork which was a collection of finely rendered Wildlife Art drawings inspired by some time spent in Africa. Lorraine was delighted to receive international sales for her drawings but her performing career took precedence over her painting career for a number of years.

Lorraine eventually returned to professional painting with a style now rich in colour and imagination. She attributes her new artistic approach to her experience as a performer, her good fortune to have travelled extensively and to the regular practise of yoga.

As a dancer and aerialist, the practise of yoga helped Lorraine to maintain the strength and flexibility to physically support her career but it also served to provide her with a means of meditation and thus a gateway to accessing her intuitive artist within. She explains her current creative process as being a synergy of physical observation, mindfulness, and intuition. At the heart of Lorraine’s philosophical and richly symbolic art is a process that beats to a palpable rhythm of spirituality.

Lorraine believes that there is an essence to all of nature, an elemental pulsating spirit tangible through vibrating forces and endless interplays of subtle energy. The human experience is but one thread woven within a wondrously diverse tapestry of life rich in patterns, colour, and texture. Lorraine hopes to incite appreciation and mindfulness of the systems and rhythms of our beautiful existence.

By merging studies of nature with philosophical ideas and elements of the esoteric her paintings are journeys of connection. She endeavours to reintroduce the human spirit to its cosmic origins and to unify the soul with its physical environment.

Lorraine has recently worked in collaboration with a US publishing company to have a collection of her work printed as an Oracle deck. The artist authored inspirational passages to accompany each of her 52 selected paintings. The deck will be released for public sale in early mid-2023. She is currently working on an epic 78 new images for an upcoming contemporary tarot deck for the same publisher.

Nicky Helm is a London based Artist who runs Healing Angel Art, which beautifully brings spirituality and art together. A teacher of Art and Design with a passion for painting angels, reiki healing, crystals, colour and spirituality, she has an optimistic outlook on life with a real sense of inner peace and compassion.

From early childhood, happy memories of creative summers spent painting with her mother and grandfather inspired Nicky to follow an artistic path. Being brought up in a Christian household developed her interest in the afterlife, leading her to study other religions such as Buddhism and Hinduism. She still felt she was searching for a deeper meaning, wholeness and purpose which she began to find once she started to explore spiritual philosophies and practices such as tai chi, crystal healing and reiki techniques.

Nicky has always felt the presence of Angels in her life but it wasn’t until 2013 after a serious illness and life saving surgery that Angels begun to make a much bigger impact on her life.

Realising she needed to find more of a work life balance and spend more time with her family and painting she went on holiday to Ibiza to recuperate and stay at a friend’s beautiful agriturismo in the northern Ibiza countryside near San Carlos. One lazy sunny afternoon whilst having reiki under the lemon trees Nicky was guided to paint her first angel and a new journey began.  As she lay under the trees she felt a golden glow cast around her and a beautiful pure angelic presence. She had woken up…. realising that spirituality comes from our soul, a way of life, connecting us to the universe for the highest good.

Nicky has always been aware of the effects and magical powers different colours can have on our minds and bodies and you can see in her paintings how much she is inspired by the healing colours of nature.

Back at home in London Nicky continued to feel guided to paint Angels who communicated to her through her meditation, dreams, signs and symbols, the more she listened the more they communicated. It became a very self-healing process, creating a happier and healthier life. Soon friends started asking Nicky to paint for them, word spread and now Nicky paints Healing Angels for individuals worldwide gaining many commissions through social media and her Etsy online shop. Her commissions are usually for people who ask for an Angel painting that specifically relates to their energy, or the energy of a loved one in this realm or the afterlife.

Nicky has a deep understanding of how art and spirituality blend together. She begins her paintings with a reiki crystal meditation, guided by Angels she fills her paintings with positive healing energies of the universe to help heal the mind body and soul. Her paintings are full of love, compassion, and pure light healing energies.

Ruth Frantziska Goldfeld (aka “Spaladonia”) is a multimedia artist in the true sense of the word. Utilizing her talents for art, music, video, poetry and writing, she explores creative landscapes in an intuitive and unconscious way, rarely creating with a specific intention, preferring to open herself up to the mood of the moment, and letting the inspiration flow through her unhindered. Her artistic creations blend elements of the ethereal and the psychedelic, with strange Daliesque landscapes populated by faces and figures. Rich with symbolism and meaning, she readily admits herself that she does not entirely know what her paintings mean, and enjoys leaving her creations open for interpretation and discussion. Her painted compositions often express an orchestrated play between order and chaos, reflecting relationships either within her own hidden psyche, speaking through her paintings, or with people who have played strong roles in her life.

“Recently, I have been creating a series of paintings focusing on ancestral connections to family members I have never met. I drew my inspiration from some group family photos I had seen from before the war, and survival stories of my mother’s family. My mother spent five years of her childhood in concentration camps during the Second World War. She is essentially a Holocaust survivor. Her mother and grandmother were the only ones who also survived. I was also inspired by “Family Constellations”, a work in which I participated for a few years in Brighton, which enabled me to heal family ancestral wounds, allowing me to more deeply relate to the grief in order to heal it. It was a wonderful process of resolution, allowing me to transmute those energies through my paintings.”

“I tend to paint straight onto the canvas, and work in close contact with my instincts, emotions and passions, allowing for change and transformation to occur as the work develops. Even though some of the subject matters may be dark or difficult, I always aim to make the finished piece pleasing to the eye. I seek harmony in the visual composition.”

Born in Haifa, a mountainous region by the sea in Israel, Frantziska began having classical piano lessons at the age of seven, in addition to drawing and copying faces and portraits from magazines. As well as dabbling in the arts, Frantziska found she was always looking for ‘The Truth’ and realised early on that that the newspapers her parents were reading were full of lies. During the Bible studies she attended she also concluded that ‘God doesn’t write books, people do’. At the age of twelve, her family moved to New York, near Coney Island by the sea, and Frantziska eventually absorbed herself in the alternative lifestyle of the time, hanging out with boys under the boardwalk, smoking grass and listening to a lot of music including The Doors, Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd.

When her father became ill, at fifteen she and her family returned to Israel which, after experiencing the highs of her American lifestyle, she found frustrating, but she soon accumulated a group of hippie friends in Israel, and she began reading many books on Philosophy, including George Gurdjieff and Pyotr Ouspenskii’s ‘In Search of the Miraculous’. This invigorated her interest in matters of a more metaphysical nature.

“Ouspenskii was a sort of Russian version of Carlos Castaneda, and I was really influenced by his work. Although I had always been interested in such things, his was all about finding your true self. His idea that we are all asleep and need to wake up to our real selves really resonated with me.”

Upon returning to Israel, Frantziska began improvising on piano, but her mother couldn’t fathom the experimental nature of her music, deeming it ‘just noise’, so Frantziska moved to painting instead. Using oils, her first painting of an Arabic old man encouraged her to continue painting faces, people and places. She would also write poetry, and at age sixteen her first poem, an anti-war message entitled ‘Let it be’ was published in a national newspaper. Ironically, a few years later Frantziska would join the Israeli army, after which she went on to study Philosophy, which she excelled at with top marks.

“I had an image of myself back then just being the Philosopher. I could see myself walking through beautiful gardens all day long with my hands behind my back, just talking Philosophy.” At twenty, Frantziska applied to Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, the best art school in the whole of Israel, and was accepted with a scholarship. However, it wasn’t long until Frantziska realised that academia wasn’t going to be right for her. She wanted to live her life free in the open air, not spend it in dark and stuffy buildings reading books.

“My life has always been about freedom of experience. I have always wanted to experience everything in life: the dark and the light, the passion and the emotion. For me, it’s all about being true to myself. I’ve not tried to be anything or anyone other than a full expression of myself. It’s not very New Age to say, but I’m not interested in working on myself, only to fully be myself. My spirituality is to live my life. I’ve never really thought about jobs or how to get them. I’ve never thought in those terms. Life for me was always about living, and being who I am. It’s a feeling I’ve always had. It’s self-evident that is what I am meant to do. What I do is what I do, and I am what I am. Admittedly though, I have often taken things to the extreme: falling in love, lots of relationships and so on. I was always a bit of a wild child.”

After several years of travelling, at twenty-six Frantziska moved with a friend of hers into a squat in London which was popular with local artists, and this marked a highly creative phase in her life of painting and music, and of course parties, where conversations were often of a philosophical nature, discussing the meaning of life and human existence. Frantziska moved several times during this period, including at one time living with a group of travellers in a house with no electricity, where she says that she painted some of her best paintings.

After 7 or 8 years of living in London squats, another friend asked if she could look after her children in the south of England, whilst she continued to teach in London, so Frantziska moved to Exmouth in Devon, and thus began a chapter in her life of cleaner living, nature and rent! Devon was a healing place, where Frantziska was introduced to hands-on healing practices, crystals and the art of visualisation. New Age spiritual practices in Devon were in abundance at that time, and Frantziska attended several courses including ‘Open Spirit’ workshops and a course in ‘Contact Dancing’. Frantziska’s passion for painting continued, and she developed an entire series of art during this period.

“I would say that a lot of my art explores the art of allowing: of allowing things to appear. Like when a sculptor has a piece of wood, and he asks the piece of wood ‘what do you want to be’? Very rarely do I create art with intent. Even when I start with a plan, it often goes somewhere else. Just the other day I started to paint something intentional, but inside me I said ‘No. I’m not doing this. I’m going the other way!’ I would say that my art has always been intuitive and unconscious.”

Saying that, it is also true that Frantziska’s art seems to tell stories, and that these stories are woven out of events that may have occurred in her life, but the meanings of those events are entirely left up to the observer to decide. Arising from her inner self, they find their way onto the canvas, sometimes baffling her as much as they might baffle the viewer.

“Some of my art I understand when I am creating it, but others I don’t. There is one painting I did that I still don’t get. But generally, I do believe that all the faces and images I’ve been painting recently arise from my own psyche, from the inner facets of my mind. From my inner family, and the different aspects of my Self.”

“Oftentimes I don’t realise until afterwards that a painting has a story woven in it. Recently I painted a painting of three woman, a man and a creature. It wasn’t until after I’d finished the painting that I realised: I live with three woman, a man and a cat! I make myself laugh sometimes.”

When Frantziska met Andrew, one of the great loves of her life, she left her painting behind her and they started travelling, at which point she returned to her love of music: playing guitar, mandolin, flute and singing. She started to record songs onto cassette tape, and occasionally she would use two tape recorders - one playing and one recording - to layer her tracks together. Eventually they found themselves travelling to Berlin, Germany, which was a hotbed of musical creativity at the time, and thus began another chapter in her musical life.

“Berlin was incredible. And we experienced such synchronicities there. On the very first night we met the people we needed to meet. It couldn’t have been better. We met a girl who was going away who had a flat she could rent to us straight away. Some others were going to start a huge art project, and we became a part of that. There was a woman who had taken over a big old train station from the Council with many buildings, and they created a project called ‘Raw Temple’, which we became involved with. It was totally ace. Wonderful.”

Frantziska’s life in Berlin initially saw her playing the guitar and singing, but it wasn’t long until she found herself in a couple of groups: one improvisational, the other more tribal in nature. Berlin was the place to be, and from the late 90’s to the early noughties, Frantziska’s musical life continued to evolve. “I could have made a career then. I was good. And I was noticed. But I didn’t have the confidence. Looking back, there was perhaps an opportunity there that I missed.”

“Some people we knew bought an amazing place in Kesselberg, near Berlin, and they let anybody who wanted to live there. Unfortunately, as there was no heating, it was very cold there, freezing, but there was a studio down the hallway, so I did quite a lot of recording there. Back in Israel however my mother was missing me deeply, and she asked me to return, so we packed our bags and headed back to Israel, where we stayed for two years.”

Returning to Israel, Frantziska decided it was time to record an album at a professional studio. Entitled Soul Stripping, the album was recorded in Tel Aviv with the music producer Amos Rozener, who played bass guitar, keyboards and electronic drums, whilst Frantziska performed on electric guitar, clarinet, sang the vocals and wrote the lyrics. In parts experimental and psycadelic in nature, Soul Stripping comprised of eleven songs, and the album was released on CD, accompanied by a video.

After recording her album in Israel, and a brief stint at another squat in London, at fifty-three years old Frantziska’s partner suggested she take a one-year course in electronic music production in London, which she attended and very much enjoyed. Towards the end of the course, Frantziska came in one day to discover everyone on computers applying for University. She hadn’t realised that the course was a music foundation level, and that she might apply for University also, which she promptly did.

Frantziska then moved to Brighton to study music, achieving a BA in Music from Sussex University. Whilst the course included music composition, music for film and electronic music as standard, to study an instrument (her choice was voice) one needed at least a Grade 8 to qualify; yet Frantziska had no grades at all. “So, I went to the head of the department, and I brought in my CD, and I said, ‘I’d like to study voice, but I don’t have any grades’. He invited me to take a test, of which I think he heard me for about 2 or 3 minutes, and he accepted me to the course. He just gave me the f*ing thing! The University was really gifted to me.”

Upon completing her BA in Music, Frantziska decided to remain in Brighton, and to combine her painting, her musical skills, and a growing interest to produce music videos for her YouTube channels. Her passion for creativity continues to express itself in innumerate ways, and she loves exploring her artistry, wherever it may take her.

Ever since Marie was a child, she has felt connected to nature and the universe. She always felt comfortable being in nature, she always decorated trees and collected flowers. She would climb trees and pass many hours gazing at the stars. She loved exploring her creativity by taking anything she found in nature and trying to make it even more beautiful than it already was. Despite this, she decided to follow a different path and started a career as a lawyer, but something was never quite right. She tried various jobs before realising that her soul was being neglected and that it was time for her to start doing her life’s work.

She started her journey of self-discovery - a journey that led her back to her childhood and her unfaltering creativity. A journey that led her back to her spirituality and her hunger to be connected with something bigger, the wider universe. A journey to unlock her true purpose. 

Magic Alchemy was this purpose. Marie created Magic Alchemy as a way of expressing this need to feel connected with something bigger whilst being able to channel her creativity and her way of seeing life through her creations. It took her over a decade to navigate back to her spiritual life through her own journey of self-discovery, however if there is one thing that is very important to Marie which is also ever-present in her artwork, it’s that it doesn’t matter how long the journey is, but that we always keep going. Sooner or later we will find our way. All the magic in our lives happens during our journey and not at the arrival. 

Throughout her journey of self-discovery, which she is still on, Marie wanted pieces of art to help motivate and inspire her towards her true potential. With this in mind, she started designing pieces of art. Art which beautifully captured the essence of being that she was trying to share. Art which showed the world that it was time to “re-kindle your inner fire” or “awaken the divine in you”. To remind everybody that “we come from the stars” and “we are here to evolve”. As some of her early work wonderfully depicted.

As time progressed and she evolved, her artwork too evolved. With a change in colour palette and a broadening of her message, Marie was able to bring in so many other aspects of her journey. From “blooming wherever we are life” to “feeling grateful” Marie was able to enhance her message that our internal journey is the most important one. What Marie can do so delicately is to show everybody, from all walks of life, that we are not a finished article. Instead, we are always evolving, and our journey of self-discovery and the wider universe (or God) will always open the right doors for us if we are willing to listen to the voice that is already within us. Her art and products have touched so many people, with raving reviews from all around the globe.

We can see Marie’s journey in real-time, as her art is always a direct manifestation of her mindset along her journey. Marie doesn’t just create based on ideas, but she creates and designs from inspiration taken within her own life or even from her dreams. Just as Marie’s journey is ever continuing, as too is the beauty which see encapsulates within her art and, thanks to her art, so many people are now able to accept who they were, honour who they are and celebrate who they’ll become.

Alongside her desire for capturing her feelings and thoughts through art, Marie also wanted ways to help to document the journey, write notes to herself and otherwise feel connected to her broader spirituality. As such, alongside her art Marie designed journals and notepads to help, not only give inspiration with her art, but provide the tools for others to guide themselves down their own paths. She shares her discoveries in each of her creations. 

If there is one thing that Marie passes with her fantastic products, it’s that the most important journey we will ever take in life, is the internal one. The one where we realise our true potential and create our dream world around us. The one where we become perfectly in-tune with the majesty of the universe around us and are able to follow our divine calling. There is no better way to summarise and capture that essence, than with the art she is ever-creating.

Kamini (rhymes with Harmony) Gupta is an Intuitive Artist & Retreat Leader. As a professional artist and designer her 40 year career spans a wide range of experience including designing for theatre, publishing and marketing, teaching and facilitating arts workshops in schools, colleges and the community.

For a number of years Kamini led Creating Space Women’s retreats at Sharpham Trust Centre for Mindfulness in Devon, UK.

Currently working with paint and mixed media on canvas, her creative practice has included multimedia installation, ceramics, live art and moving image.

Kamini’s work has been featured in magazines, books, film, galleries, museums and in the homes of buyers from across the world.

My Spiritual Journey

“As a child growing up in India the very air that I breathed was infused with spirituality. Yet my Indian father and English mother chose not to give me a religious upbringing believing that this was a choice I must make for myself.

Though I couldn’t name it at the time I found solace and rejuvenation in art, nature and especially by the ocean, this was my spiritual home amidst the chaos of Mumbai life.”

In 1986 Kamini came to live in England and it was here her spiritual journey began in 1993 when she went on her first Buddhist silent retreat which changed the course of her life.

“Here I caught a glimpse of how much my authentic being was shackled by my conditioning. I left my ‘secure’ job and conventional life to do a degree in Theatre Design.

The world of theatre and learning brought me into my element creatively yet being at college as a mature student was challenging socially and I struggled to fit in. The isolation triggered a period of depression which brought me to the next turning point in my journey when I started therapy and art became my medicine.”

Jungian Art therapy switched on a light in the darkness opening Kamini’s eyes to the mysterious shadowlands of the unconscious and the magical symbolic realm of archetypes.

“The next fork in the road came in 1998 on retreat when I had, what I can only describe, as a mystical experience of intense sensations moving through my body.

Drawn to express this wild primal energy through my hands I found myself working with clay. The small figures that emerged were described by others as ‘tantric’ and at this point I had no idea what that meant.”

Kamini’s art and spiritual practice converged as she began her journey into Vajrayana Buddhism, Shamanism, Shaivism, Goddess cultures and mythology to discover what is described as Shakti, Kundalini, Source Energy, giving rise to the Goddess, Sacred Feminine, and Wild Woman archetypes across cultures. 

“This is the source of a woman’s power, her wellspring of inner knowing, her deep womb/heart connection to the feminine creative life force of the Universe.”

Art is My Medicine

“Art is my medicine, when I create I connect with my centre of calm and connectedness; I enter a feeling of flow and inspiration and a profound sense of wellbeing. Images and visions that emerge bring insights and wisdom that inform my life.

At the heart of this exploration is the quest for transformation with the knowing that when I express through art (a dance, drawing, poem, song or performance), I am also exploring and healing something in my life. As I approach life this way, challenges, rather than being obstacles, become opportunities to be creative, to use my imagination and intuition, opening to new and healthier ways of being”.

In 2002 Kamini fell critically ill and had to have life saving surgery. The next seven years was a roller coaster of major life stress and trauma culminating in the sudden death of her husband in 2007.

Kamini took six months off work, stepped away from her career in the Arts and for the next 10 years and took a deep dive into her healing journey, exploring her inner world through journalling, writing poetry, meditation, movement and plenty of time out on the land.

“Needless to say I was knocked off my feet.  My usual strategy of picking myself up and getting on with life wasn’t working, my body just wouldn’t let me. I had no choice but to stop and in this time I learned that healing is a journey, like the seasons, has its own momentum and cannot be rushed. My foundation in the Buddhist teachings, the practice of mindfulness, and my capacity as an artist to be creative and solution-focused in my outlook have without doubt been the essential anchors in my healing journey.”

My Prayer

In 2015 Kamini felt her creative impulse emerging again and started painting. She describes her process as working intuitively allowing the unfolding of what or who wants to emerge in the moment.

“My process is ritualistic, an act of worship, my studio a temple, my altar the canvas on which I paint my prayers. Images and visions that emerge bring insights and wisdom that inform my life.

This art making is a journey through ever changing inner and outer landscapes. I work intuitively, standing on the edge of not knowing is an ongoing journey to stay open, spontaneous and willing to be surprised.

A Soul Conversation through art with the symbolic language expressed in the archetypes of ancient myth, ritual art and ceremony; an engagement rooted in the natural rhythms and pulse of the Earth.”

In 2017 after ten years of privately exploring the relationship between her spiritual practice and her art Kamini took a leap of faith and went public with her first solo exhibition Soulscapes at Harbour House Gallery in Kingsbridge.

“ I have to say it was pretty terrifying to bare my soul as, up until this point, I was what I called a Closet Goddess worshipper! My spiritual life had been pretty private until this point and these paintings felt sacred, it was like inviting the public into the inner sanctum of my Soul Temple not knowing if they would tread softly or drag their muddy feet through it! ”

" A unique exhibition"..... ...."Utterly Divine"... ..."Soul warming, celebratory images painted with so much stillness, insight and honesty"... ...."Every work is a world, full and inspirational"......" so moving, brought me to tears”...

Visitors response to Kamini’s Soulscapes Exhibition.

My Passion

At this time in history, as never before, we are being called to take radical action to stop the destruction and restore the balance of the Earths eco system. There is a revolution taking place in the hearts of women and men across the world to dismantle the old ruling structures based on personal greed and power to embrace a new paradigm rooted in service, love and interconnectedness. Kamini’s passion is creating spaces for stillness, wisdom, and beauty to flourish.

“I want to be the change: Gandhi said ‘be the change you want to see in the world’, and I want to live a sustainable life, healthy in mind and body, with a work/life balance that allows for the heart to breathe in the beauty present in every moment. This is what I want for each one of us, a world in which we are at peace with ourselves and others, living in harmony with the Earth.”