Patchwork Elephant with love hearts

Hi it’s such a pleasure to be part of the Kindness Community.  My name is Sarah and I live with my hubby Bruce and our cat Malibu on the NW coast of England.  

I live with visible and invisible disabilities and am mostly housebound and reliant on my wonderful family for the support I need.  I have lived with ME for all my adult life after never recovering from glandular fever, was formally diagnosed over 25 years ago with ME, Fibromyalgia, Arthritis and a degenerative spinal condition.  I am an ambulatory wheelchair user and I’m desperately saving up for an electric wheelchair!  

I am a medically retired headteacher and I have developed my creative streak as a self-taught artist, working mainly with watercolour and sometimes some mixed media too.  I love how the water and paint interact on the page and try not to control them too much.  

Painting is like a ballet happening on the paper between brush, paint and paper.  It’s such a joy!  If you haven’t ever painted with watercolour I would encourage you to give it a go! 

I also host free zoom ‘Paint with Me’ sessions aimed specifically at other disabled and chronically ill people. We paint together fortnightly as it gives recovery time and I have found that it gives all of us a sense of community, a space to belong and a space to hold each other as we explore a painting together. Some people just come to watch, others paint everyone’s welcome… and we create a wonderful virtual art gallery too! 

I have a Youtube and Patreon channel which are again aimed at disabled and chronically ill people.  It’s a slower pace, quieter video space; something that hopefully allows for engagement.  We’ve also got a really friendly Painting with Sarah Johnson group on Facebook.  A community made to encourage one another as our skills are developing and progress isn’t linear. 

I hope you love my art, I paint for the process and hope to bring some disabled joy into the world.  

If you want to paint with others please do get in touch to get the link - you will be made very welcome.  Come along and belong ❤️