Last weekend I had the treat of attending my 5th year of David’s Tent worship festival. There were over 70 artists - young and old, professionals and newbies, with a breadth of style and medium all gathered in a big blue tent in the middle of a field, in Wiston Estate West Sussex, to creatively praise their Maker.

David’s Tent is a 72 hour non-stop worship event where people gather from all around the world, across different denominations and church expressions to worship Jesus. Worship starts at 2pm on the Friday and continues until 2pm Monday, people come and go as they wish.

The Art Team and art space has been led for 8 years now by the wonderful Linette Penney-Gainham and her husband Keith, and grows year on year. There is a team of artists who serve at the event leading workshops and creating individual prophetic art for delegates in the prophetic art tent, as well as painting during the worship.
But the arts area in the big top is available for anyone to paint or create in their own way, whether they are professional artists or just wanting to have their first try at something. I served on the art team for 3 years but have taken a break these last 2 years to focus purely on painting and giving some unofficial support to those around me.

Here’s a little video showcasing the variety of art created this year.

I consider this festival my birthplace as an artist - 5 years ago I arrived, never having painted on a canvas before with lots of fear, lots of hang ups and lots of enthusiasm. Now I’m a professional, full time artist, leading workshops, exhibiting in galleries and painting prophetic art at conferences in front of thousands - God's breathed life into the little I brought to the table those years ago!
It’s only been 5 years, I’m really only just getting started and still have a LOT to learn, but when we dare to make ourselves vulnerable, and step into what God has designed us to do, in a safe place like DT, within the care of people like Linette, then God causes fruit to grow. David's Tent was the good soil that nurtured and nourished my little seed as it started on it's journey.

I find David’s Tent a uniquely encouraging creative environment and worshipful atmosphere where I can experiment and step beyond the norm. Whether that shows itself in expressive dance, massive floor paintings or, like this year, a combination of the two!

Often, in real life (outside of social media), we may come across just 1 or 2 prophetic artists (if that) and sometimes we can feel quite alone in it all. The life of a professional artist can be quite an isolated one. I hope that me sharing my experiences at DT will bring you some encouragement and bless you - this is real, an army of artists is rising up to bring glory to God, this is happening, God is on the move!

A number of you don't live near enough to visit my Open Studio event, so I thought I'd bring it to you via my blog!

A little introduction for those who don’t know - Cambridge Open Studios runs for 4 weekends in July each year, across the city and surrounding area. Each weekend I choose to take part (this year it was the 2nd and 3rd w/e) I open my home and studio space to the public from 11 am - 6pm each day.

I transform the downstairs of my home (my lounge and kitchen) into an exhibition, displaying my art and art products on every wall and surface area I can find!
Then I distribute fliers, shout about it on social media and wait to see who comes.

It’s always such a privilege to see how many people pop in to take a look - this year I had 160 visitors over the 2 weekends. Whether they are just passing and see the balloons, have chosen me as part of a list of places in the area for the day or have specifically decided to come to see my work, I don’t take it lightly, when there are 300+ other artists also taking part around the city.

It’s a wonderful opportunity to share what I do with people - to show where I work, to talk about my process and to hear what people think. Here are some of the comments I heard or that I found written in my visitors book this time round.