Born in Walmer , Elizabeth Luckhurst began drawing as a young girl and later attended Art College in Canterbury.

Elizabeth's time at Art College was mostly spent on life drawing where she discovered the relationship between artist and model created a strong bond that she could express through her drawings.

"There's such a lot you can tell from the body language of the model and I was fortunate enough to work with mostly one model, who was utterly fantastic at letting her deepest feelings come through.

Art College was a time of real development for Elizabeth as her technique started to find definition. "I began to realise that what I sketched in the first five or ten minutes created the most powerful image and anything more seemed to diminish the subject. I suppose looking back, it's where I really developed as an artist and discovered what I wanted to do with art".

However the desire to also explore the wider world was beginning to pull Elizabeth in other directions. "I had a feeling that I wanted to do other things as the idea of just painting day after day didn't feel right. I wanted to get out into the wider world and do something more hands on".

Following Art College, and itching to do something different, Elizabeth packed her bags and set off to do voluntary work in India and Nepal.

The Black Pig

As her life followed its course, Elizabeth returned home and later married Brett Luckhurst who recently took over the Butcher shop in Kingsdown, now re christened The Black Pig (a tongue in cheek homage to one of Elizabeth's ancestors). Together the couple had three daughters now aged three to ten.

As we sit in a friend's drawing room, overlooking the English Channel, Elizabeth plays tenderly with Josie, her youngest daughter and it's easy to see her in the role of a loving mother. "I was 22 when I had Merlie, the first of our three daughters and although I kept up my life drawing I had other priorities for the next decade" she says without regret.

But a chance encounter a year or so ago with Angus Neill, a Deal resident and an international art dealer, was the catalyst that re awakened Elizabeth's motivation and enthusiasm for art. "I met Angus Neill through dog walking on Wellington Parade and we built up a great rapport from our common interests in dogs, architecture and art."

A life change

Meeting Angus Neill seems to have been a defining moment. "It was definitely the beginning of a life change for me because he was so enthusiastic about my work". Angus, who deals in Old Master and Modern Paintings (www.felder.co.uk) is convinced Elizabeth has all the qualities to be a successful artist. "Elizabeth Douglas is an exceptionally talented artist. She combines technique with vision. She thus creates art" he says.

Angus later introduced Elizabeth to Frances Fyfield, an acclaimed novelist also living in Deal and a collector of British 20th century paintings and drawings. At this point, Elizabeth admits that she had never considered herself as an artist as such: she sketched and painted because it made her happy and she enjoyed the contact with nature and the human form. "I hadn't really sold any of my work before and it was a big step to let go of certain drawings that I had become personally attached to."

In other areas of her life, Elizabeth feels she has gone about things in a fairly conventional way, tackling whatever challenges come along. "It's a bit like learning to play a musical instrument (Elizabeth is an accomplished flautist) you have to practice and practice and work very hard to achieve a certain level. But my art was just for me. I wasn't striving to achieve anything from it. And because of this approach I had always been quite attached to my drawings".

Breath of fresh air

Frances Fyfield , was immediately impressed with Elizabeth's work and says "Elizabeth's art is a breath of fresh air. Her drawings make me smile. They have wit and wisdom and look gorgeous". When Frances decided to purchase several drawings, Elizabeth knew she had to make a big decision. "It was the moment to decide to let go of things and as a result of that 'letting go' process, it's turned me into a practicing artist" she says.

Elizabeth recently held her first exhibition featuring drawings of seagulls, hens, crows, cats, the sea, still life and the human form but acknowledges it was a pretty daunting experience, not only producing new work for the exhibition, but helping to put the exhibition together. "Frances and Angus have been my friends, my patrons, supporters and promoters and I'm so grateful to them for their encouragement of me as an artist."

Elizabeth Luckhurst is certainly no artistic prima donna and her approach to her artistic output is refreshingly candid. "I haven't got any great big life philosophies on art or why I do it. I suppose it's like any creative person who may do it as a way of expressing something about themselves. I'm really quite a shy person, who in their youth was not very confident about taking decisions but as I've matured and become a mother, my art feels like an expression of me, it's completely my own thing with no influence from anyone else at all".