Blue Carrot Art & Granny J’s idyllic nurseries

As a new mother, you occasionally find yourself quite isolated and very often home alone with your baby. You then tend to either start looking for networking mums, constantly going online between feeds, checking quirky blogs and loud mum forums while seeking for other peers’ stories, or you pray for a miracle to find yourself surrounded with lots of other mothers who seem to share the same tough challenges: sleepless longest nights and a passion for motherhood.

This is a post about those lucky moments when almost randomly one gets to meet cool new people who seem to have discovered the deepest secrets of motherhood. And all this during my endless attempts of not sitting on the sofa in front of my TV while blaming the weather for keeping me inside and watching my busy toddler learning through playing with shoes and ties (as our bad investment useless toys are so awfully boring). To start this story, quite recently I took us both (moody toddler & I, tired mum) out for a walk on this tiny beach behind my house despite highly uninviting crisp airwaves. Yet don’t think glam life, this it’s not LA, I live in London, so try and fancy a tiny pebble beach on the grey grimy restless waters of the Thames river which half of the day gets flooded by the tide.

Yet, before I lose myself into hundreds of other futile details of that day, I am here sharing with you all how I met Granny J, aka Jane Sherrington, the amazing artist behind Blue Carrot Art, also a cool mother of two, fun new grandmother of a tiny gorgeous human called Lilly and best friend of Daisy, a cheeky bubbly Yorkshire terrier that is also a true fan of my pebble beach.

Jane is a retired management consultant who is now dedicating her time to her lifetime passion: painting. Having had to take time out for a series of operations, that are not yet complete, Jane needed something to fill a gap and as she had loved to paint when she was younger, she decided to have a dabble again. She adds: ‘To my amazement, I just felt so at peace and stimulated by my creative side, which had been shelved for work and bringing up my family for many years. Friends and family loved my work and started requesting pieces and paying me! I now wish to develop my creative side further and have set up a website. The nursery painting is purely an extension of creating an image for pleasure. It also introduces my other painting to a new audience’. Let me tell you, she is very good at it (calling out London parents!) so as i am a fan of witty fun people, I decided to get to know her better…

1. How did I decide on painting Nurseries?

When my daughter was pregnant she got into everything baby, and shared her findings, thoughts & ideas with me. Internet and Google was not around when I had her, so there is a lot more available now which is great! So we discussed painting the nursery and couldn’t find anyone out there doing this kind of painting.

2.Which are your tips for new parents when it comes to nursery wall decorating?

Keep it as simple as possible, nothing with eyes looking towards the front, as toddlers could find it scary! Think about where the cot will be and other furniture, so the painting fits around the furniture

3.What are the top favorite nursery painting ideas parents have?

This is pretty easy. They want a theme that they can coordinate with the nursery furniture they will be buying, or have bought.

4.How easy/hard is it to work with parents?

Once I have set up I want to be left alone to get on with the painting, but the parents need a little persuasion to give me the space to create what they want.

6.What other requests does Blue Carrot Art get?

As a painter, I have creative ideas all the time. Sometimes my discussions inspire a customer to suggest something they would like, in colours that will fit in with their décor. This is quite effective on the larger paintings, or a series of paintings with themes

7.What do I enjoy most about my job

I love to lose myself in the creation of painting, time passes and it a pure joy. I learn about me as well as how a piece comes together. When I do a copy, for example a Cezanne I feel I learn about the artist too.