10 highlights for 2014 for David Lyon Art

1. Realising that commitment and dedication to my craft brings positive results;

2. Finding out that taking the easy route isn't always the best;

3. Finding that having a professional approach to how I work engenders creative self-respect and the respect of my peers;

4. Realising that it's essential to use your own ideas;

5. Being comfortable with calling myself 'An Artist';

6. Realising that not everybody who makes 'Art' is 'An Artist';

7. The feedback I received from people who chanced upon the 'Wildflowers' series exhibited at St. James's University Hospital was positive and life affirming, meaning I'd reached people and communicated  - which is what I set out to do;

8. Having positive support and interest from galleries who chose to display and sell my work;

9. Making things - paintings, prints, cards, calendars - that people want to buy;

10. And last, but far from least, having the love, support and help of family and friends (you know who you are). Thank you.

The Atrium Gallery Exhibition - Leeds

My art show at The Atrium Gallery has been booked for two years. It's difficult to obtain premium space to exhibit art in the Leeds area so I'm really pleased and grateful that the selection panel at St. James's agreed to show this series.

Due to the nature of the venue there are restrictions on the type of images that can be displayed, so no sex, glamour, religion, violence, death or politics. Fortunately at the time of submission, I'd been working on some very colourful, optimistic flower images.

Upon securing the exhibition site it was decided that I should work towards filling the space with images based around the initial idea. So making larger versions of the initial six that were chosen to publish as greeting cards seemed a logical step.

The larger paintings took six months to complete, each one in succession. Some are truer to the original sketches than others but the fact that I was using a different medium - acrylic - meant that the colours probably wouldn't be as intense as the originals - oil pastel and crayon.

The smaller paintings followed and I was keen to capture the looseness of the scribbles that I'd drawn which reference the original series. I'll have the notebook with me at the Private View on 7th August so that I can demonstrate what I'm talking about. All in all a busy 18 months so I'm hoping the show will look as good as I think it will and be good publicity for Yorkshire Cancer Centre. Let's hope we can raise funds for a much needed cause (25% commission from my sales will go to Yorkshire Cancer Centre).