6 Art Projects for 2026

I’m not one for setting goals, or resolutions, or jumping on any trends just because it’s January. But this year, starting a new year with a lot of uncertainty around careers, homes and more, feels like a good time to ground myself in projects and passions. It’s what I always do when I can’t control things around me, I keep myself busy.

So I thought I’d share with you my six art projects that I’m hoping to work on this year. These are by no means fixed, and I’m only holding accountable to myself, but writing them down gives them clarity, so here goes.

1. Create more “Garden Birds” collage paintings

I started my Wild Gardens series of small collage paintings early in 2025, exploring tactile art and bright, bold colours inspired by flowers and gardens, a new muse at the time. This series didn’t last too long, but seemed to reach a conclusion with Jenny’s Garden, a larger 40 x 40 cm piece in which I allowed myself to be more playful, more abstract.

Just as we were winding down the year, I found some old thumbnail painting studies I’d done, and a spark was lit. I sketched out a new garden bird painting in Procreate, and that was that. I think this combination of British birds that I love so much and that cement my work in a place and time, plus the textured and versatile abstraction of collage is a style that I could do a lot more of.

2. Create a project on my sewing machine

A sudden urge to try sewing at my mum’s turned into a love of creating collage with fabric. There’s something relaxing and wholesome about creating little patchworks, then letting the machine put it all together. I’m definitely a beginner, but looking forward to creating a landscape project this year, possibly relating to the months or the seasons, I haven’t decided yet.

3. Submit a new collage and mixed media painting for Landscape Artist of the year

I always love watching Sky Arts Landscape Artist of the Year, getting inspired by the amazing locations, and watching how a handful of artists tackle a scene in such unique ways. Some inspiring talent! I’m looking forward to submitting a collage mixed media landscape to the competition this year, because, you never know!

4. Complete my art long essay

When your husband is a lecturer and art historian, you’re bound to bounce ideas off of each other, and his perspective on art is far more studious and analytical than mine. But with his help I’m experimenting with a long essay style piece of writing, talking about my methodology, artistic and stylistic influences in my collage art, and how I’m trying to marry representational elements with more abstracted layers. It’s a good chance to flex my writing muscles, as well as take a deeper dive into my process and my motives for painting.

5. Continue to work on sketchbook studies and slow studying

2026 might be my Year of the Sketchbook, and I plan to dedicate a lot more time to my sketchbook studies. With several concertina sketchbooks on the go, plus a sketchbook dedicated to layered landscape studies that I’m working on with Marabeth Quinn’s Mixed Media Collage and the Intuitive Landscape course, the sketchbook will be a chance to test out now ideas, techniques and colour palettes, as well as learning more about my own visual language.

6. Curate a seasonal garden

With varying levels of success, I started gardening last year, injecting some greenery into my yard. This year I’d like to invest in this little corner of nature a bit more, perhaps with a bird table and some seasonal plants and garasses that change throughout the year. I’ll also use colour more, introducing plants with different coloured leaves such as heucherea and colourful stems to turn it into a painter’s garden for each season.