New year news

Here we reflect on our inspirations of 2025 and look forward to what will influence us in 2026.

MUSIC

Richard / music

Looking back on 2025, the biggest inspiration for my creative life wasn’t a piece of gear, a plug-in, or even a particular record. It was time.

For the first time in a long while, I had enough of it – enough to explore production techniques and genres I’d skirted around in the past, enough to follow pathways I’d left unattended, and enough simply to do things better. More carefully. More deliberately. With fewer compromises.

That sense of space culminated in an Umbrian retreat towards the end of the year. It turned out to be far more than a change of scenery. Over those days I managed to work through some fairly serious creative blocks, and came away with a renewed appreciation for focus, application, and the quiet confidence that comes from working without noise or urgency. It was a reminder that peace isn’t the absence of effort, but the right conditions for it.

2025 also gave me time to look beyond music, and to absorb the influence of artists working in other disciplines. A few, in particular, stayed with me.

Mrinalini Mukherjee’s work had a profound impact – not only for the astonishing physical presence of her sculpture, but for her lifelong commitment to stepping sideways, to taking time out to learn adjacent skills that ultimately strengthened her own practice. Helen Chadwick’s fearlessness continues to resonate, while Linder’s precision – and her generosity of intent – felt quietly instructive.

One exhibition, in particular, keeps returning to me. Caroline Walker’s Mothering at the Hepworth Wakefield demonstrated, with real restraint and quiet passion, the importance of opening our eyes to a hidden world that exists in plain sight. In doing so, it captured the complex, layered, and often unseen relationships between women and motherhood with extraordinary sensitivity.

Towering over the year, though, was Jenny Saville. Her show at the National Portrait Gallery didn’t just underline her direct line to the greatest of the great masters – it also made visible her rigorous, relentless commitment to refining and improving her technique in pursuit of a singular, uncompromising vision. That kind of focus is both humbling and galvanising.

So what’s firing me up at the start of 2026?

A lot of Bach. A lot of Corelli. The slinky, slightly chilly, nocturnal grooves of Maya Jane Coles. And, very soon, the prospect of making music in Marrakesh – a change of light, rhythm, and texture that I’m already feeling pull at the edges of what comes next.

ART

Christine / art

For me, human beings demonstrated the most inspiration in 2025, in terms of passion and determination. From artists I have met in person and discovered online to my current colleagues and fellow volunteers, there’s been untold commitment and enthusiasm in doing a good job and enjoying it. In being surrounded by positivity rather than pressure and oppression, my own ideas and endeavours have flourished.

A lot of people love art, whether it’s making it or looking at it (or both, like myself). There are many artists also exploring their creativity which makes for very supportive communities. And I call them ‘artists’ even if they have barely made one picture – it’s certainly less about what you have produced than what your mindset embodies. I have seen fantastic pieces this year made by so-called ‘beginners’, which has made me learn by just trying things and seeing what happens.

And as learning and developing is part of my personal ideology, through the year a number of courses and their tutors have been truly inspiring. A retreat in Italy was a luxurious way to focus on some mixed media landscape work which resulted in Via Lavinia, which also forced me into detail again.

Looking at art is always intriguing at the very least and I’ve enjoyed some great exhibitions, from Jenny Saville to Emily Kam Kngwarray. As a result scale has been an aspect I’ve started to dabble with and it’s compelling! I predict my next challenge will be space…

I’ve been lucky enough to visit some exciting places from Saltaire, UK – teeming with vibrant David Hockney work, to Arezzo, Italy, taking in the Piero Della Francesco frescoes at the Basilica of San Francesco. And in Berlin the modern art at the Berlinische Galerie was beautifully curated.

This year I deliberately experienced more music and more music genres and I think that uplifting of spirit when musicians are enjoying themselves carries through not just to art but a wider perspective on many aspects of life.

For 2026 I’m going to build on my learnings from my Christmas card 2025 project (planning, layering, patience, reining in the maximalism) and the larger scale dalliances to inject some power into my art. I’m off to Marrakesh soon with the wonderful Easel and Lens and tutor/artist Julian Hyzler, excited to experience the colours, patterns and bustle of that part of the world and stretch that comfort zone again.

I hope human beings will feature once again; I plan to incorporate more figures into my work which will be supplemented with some refresher life drawing classes.

A couple of branding projects will also be exciting so very much looking forward to getting those underway in this new year.

There are already concerts and gallery trips in the calendar which I hope will be mind-blowing and thought-provoking.

As ever, I hope you like what emerges from my small studio – do keep in touch.