I'll never forget the time I saw my first Sam Toft painting. It stopped me in my tracks. It was simple and humorous, and seemed to embrace a more peaceful time set in a beautiful place by the sea. I wanted to be there, in the painting, riding that bicycle with the dog in the basket, not giving a single care what was going in the world!The simple life. I want that!
I was surprised to find that Sam's art is everywhere! Where on this earth had I been, or had I just not looked up long enough to discover all the wonderful things around me? So I searched the world wide web and found that Sam Toft is exactly what her art represents and she lives in Brighton in the UK.
I could write all day and never come close to what Sam's beautiful website does to give you real insight into this creative artist and the humor she conveys. So here is her opening...
Sam Toft and her Wonderful World of Mustard?
Sam Toft has created an imaginary world inhabited by one Ernest Hemmingway Mustard, professional tuneless hummer and part-time hurricane predictor of Brighton and Hove. He lives in a not-so-damp basement flat with his dear lady wife Violet and Doris their grumpy and rather portly Jack Russell Terrier. Sam follows their adventures along the Prom and across the globe. She works in oil pastels and coloured inks using proper artists' materials along with kitchen towels, items of cutlery, steel pen nibs, pencil dust, old tooth brushes as well as her innovative fingers and thumbs technique. Patent pending.
There’s a new Little Shop in Brighton to visit, a separate mail order shop online, an open submission gallery in two restored Brighton phones boxes, a book with stories in, a new Mustard Hamper business, a lively Facebook group and Instagram accounts for Sam’s work, the Little Shop and the Dog and Bone phonebox galleries.
Sam's Shop in Brighton
If you want to purchase her fun creations, there is much available (unsigned) online right here in the good old USA.
I hope to go to Brighton one day to visit her shop ... want to go with?
Enjoy!
jan
