Who should I paint for this week?
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A little chain of love, with a little help from paint 👩🏻🎨🎁🎨
Starting this November, every week, I’d like to choose one of your stories and turn it into a small original sketch or painting, for free.
You tell me about someone you love: your mum, your dad, your crazy best friend, your brilliant daughter, Brad Pitt, your kind partner, someone having a rough time, someone who’s been wonderful to you, or simply someone who means the world to you.
Then you give me one little thing that belongs only to the two of you:
A nickname you gave them after that special occasion.
Their long-forgotten childhood teddy bear.
A flower they picked for you that day.
A private joke between the two of you.
That emoji you always send them.
Honestly, anything.
I’ll turn it into a little original piece and send it directly to them, anywhere in the world, in their real mailbox, with a personal note from you.
From you, through me, to someone you care about.
Watch the little video I made for you.
We’ve never had so many ways to reach each other, and yet somehow we seem to feel more and more disconnected.
So I started wondering what I could do with my paintings that might simply make someone smile.
I’m not going to save the world with watercolour. Nobody has ever phoned me to negotiate peace with a size 6 brush.
But maybe I can do something smaller.
Something made by hand that actually lands in somebody’s letterbox.
Where this came from
A few years ago, I ran a project called Colour Up Your Day.
For three years, I painted one picture a day and sent it for free into people’s inboxes.
Every. Single. Day.
Beautiful.
And, in hindsight, completely unhinged.
Some of you wrote back and told me those little paintings helped you through meh! days. Sometimes they were just a pause, a bit of colour, or something nice to look at when the rest of the day felt a bit rubbish.
Those messages stayed with me.
I wanted to bring a little of that spirit back, but without waking up every morning screaming:
OH GOD, WHAT SHOULD I PAINT TODAY.
So this time, you’re giving me the ideas.
What happens next?
If I choose your story, I’ll share the process on my social media, from the story to the painting.
Then I’ll send the finished piece directly to that person, from you, with your little personal note.
They’ll open their letterbox expecting a gas bill and find a small piece of art instead.
Which, frankly, is a much better use of a letterbox.
No grand gesture.
No violins.
No slow-motion montage of people hugging in a field at sunset.
Just a little drawing going from one human to another.
I’ll choose the story that makes me laugh, hits me in the chest, gives me an idea, or makes me want to grab a brush before I’ve even finished reading.
And it may take me a little time, because despite all our technological progress, nobody has yet invented a way to give me four extra hours a day.
Why?
Because sometimes we just need a little signal:
I see you.
I remember that hilarious thing you said fifteen years ago.
I saw this and thought of you.
The painting is just the messenger.
A slightly paint-stained messenger, but still.
So if someone popped into your head while reading this — especially if they happen to be a Grizzly Marshmallow, an inseparable lorikeet or a deeply misunderstood aubergine emoji — tell me about them.
The informations you are sharing here will stay hidden.