Elizabeth Hinton-Simoneau

I’ve always drawn.  The margins of my school books were filled with biro sketches; I’d illustrate the history lessons as they went along.  My dad painted, and my aunty Margaret and my great uncle Ron, so I suppose when I decided that’s what I really wanted to do, it seemed like carrying the baton.

I studied at Camberwell in London and then Norwich School of Art, where I took sculpture.  But I really cut my teeth as a painter in Russia where I lived for six years from 1989 to 1995.  I lived amongst other artists; painting, exhibiting, doing performances and street theatre.  I worked with a charity for homeless people.  You got to see a bit of everything; some of it shocking, some unbearable, some hilarious, some totally uplifting.

During the last year of C20th I fell in love with, and came to France to be with, the inimitable Jean-Joie, whose name says much about the sort of person he is.

Today I’m a novice in the Franciscan Third Order (Anglican).  Part of my Life Rule is to give back to God whatever talent He accorded me as an artist, and so to try to make God’s love known through my work.  I’m never happier than when painting for churches or for private devotion, knowing that my work is serving God and His people; it is the fulfilment of my calling.