"Ahhhhhhhh, Wow, you have won first prize for your painting" I shouted to Julie.
Although a seasoned photographer since her grandfather gave her his old Kodak camera as a young girl, this was only Julie's second painting.
Having never painted before in her life, an afternoon of watching and photographing the Atlantic waves curl and crash near Bay Scolpaig, (see our blog 18th October 2016) provided the spark of inspiration for Julie to pick up a paintbrush. "I'm going to try and paint one of my photograph's of those magnificent waves today. The sheer drama of the situation, the sound of the those waves and the raw power of the Ocean would be amazing to paint", she said.
This is the photograph taken that day at Bay Scolpaig and Julie's first painting which she called "Crashing Waves".
Her second painting "A nice pair!" was just awarded first prize in the 2017 Society for All Artists "Still life" competition (category for artists painting less than 2 years). There were over 5000 entries!
"A nice pair" will be exhibited at the Headquarters of the Society for All Artists during summer 2017 before being displayed at the National Exhibition Centre (NEC), Birmingham "Arts and crafts" show in November 2017.
As Julie's proud husband I imagined the headline "Visit North Uist, start painting and win first prize in national competition in 6 months". Well, as a former engineer who as a young boy drew pictures of footballers with a ruler, perhaps not in my case!
See more of Julie's photographs and paintings on her website www.juliemitchellfineart.com