Wirral artist who gave up her catering company to paint wins Liverpool Art Fair’s People’s Choice Award

A Wirral artist who began painting for peace after getting burnt out running her own catering company has won this year’s People’s Choice Award at Liverpool Art Fair.

Hazel Thomson, whose work focuses on natural landscapes, says she finds a solace in trees and nature.

“And I hope other people can find that same solace and peace through what I do,” she says. “It’s a bit of escapism.

“Right now, with everything that’s going on in the world and the way it is, I think a lot of people are craving it. If I can help to give them that through my work, then I’m happy.”

Hazel with a collection of her paintings

She adds: “Back in 2007-8 I was still teaching myself to paint and use oils on canvas after deciding at the milestone age of about 39 or 40 to give up my business and get back into nature and just paint.

“Now I absolutely love what I do and I am thrilled to get the People’s Choice Award.

“It means a lot because it’s from the general public, and it’s because they appreciate what I do, and it resonates with them.

“That’s nice.”

Until around 18 years ago, Hazel’s life was very different, and she still pinches herself about how much it has changed.

The 58-year-old from Great Sutton had her own catering business and was driving herself into the ground working 60-hours a week: “I was completely burnt out,” she explains. “Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t all doom and gloom. I had a great time, but at a certain age you start to take stock and realise life needs a better balance.

“I have always had a love of nature and trees, they were my refuge during a difficult childhood.

“My father was a schizophrenic and when things were difficult and there was a lot going on at home I used to go to a tree in our garden. I would climb up into the curve and drape my bedspread over to build a sort of tree house.”

Hazel’s father died when she was 11, just before she went to high school and she found everything chaotic: “I didn’t want to go into crowds, and I found it all a little overwhelming.”

But it was there that, while it took years to find root, the seed of creativity and her desire to paint was planted.

“The one thing I loved was the art classes – I didn’t want to go into any of the other classes, so I’d turn up for art even when I wasn’t down for it. I was a bit of a problem child because when they said I couldn’t do that I hardly went to school at all.

“And I didn’t pick up paint or a brush for a long time after.

“I left school at 16 and did catering, and at the age of 24 set up my own business. But when I decided to give it up, I knew I wanted to go back to nature, and paint.

“I’m so lucky that I have a very supportive family,” smiles Hazel, who’s married to David with whom she has grown up children Kayleigh and David James.”

She went on a 10-week oil painting course and then decided to spend time teaching herself and experimenting: “And I’m still experimenting.

“I paint with a brush and a palette knife to get the texture.

“In the early days I used to use sketches and I spent years on walkabout, just going from place to place to look at trees and soak up nature. Now I can use pictures or just let it come from my imagination.

“I very often do changing seasons, and I love first thing in the morning or just as the sun’s going down. It’s such a magical time of day. When the sun’s shining through the trees, it highlights everything and it’s just fantastic.

“If I can capture those few moments of magic in one of my paintings, I’m pleased. Nature is so powerful – one of the best things to come out of Covid is our realisation of that!”

Hazel began showing her work in numerous galleries from 2015, including exhibitions at Stockport War Memorial Art Gallery, The Cambrian Royal Academy, Grosvenor Museum Chester, the Williamson Museum and Art Gallery in Birkenhead, and Liverpool Art Fair; as well as dot-art Liverpool, whose founder Lucy Byrne started the Liverpool Art Fair, and art fairs organised by Saatchi in London.

She also sells and exhibits her work through Saatchi’s online STArt art fair, and other galleries in the capital.

“To be honest I have just winged it,” she says. Which is perhaps an understatement given the countless awards Hazel has won, including many first and second people’s choice awards. She has also been presented with a Certificate of Achievement from the Visual Artists Association, and the Circle Foundation for the Arts awarded her with a Certificate of Excellence.

Hazel has twice been listed in the Top 5 artists in the American Art Awards – first time for the category World’s Best Artists of Landscape Impressionism and second for the category World’s Best Artists of Realism Landscape – and her paintings are now in private collections all over the world.

This year’s Liverpool Art Fair award means she will have a two-week exhibition at Cass Art in Liverpool, and she has won Cass Art vouchers, dinner, bed and breakfast at INNSiDE Liverpool and Gino D’Acampo’s restaurant, a family ticket to RLB360 and dot-art membership for a year.

“It’s a wonderful life to just go off and paint,” says Hazel, “and I hope everyone gets to do what they really want to do, whatever that is.

“I’m so lucky. I’ll be doing this until I’m toes up. I love it.”

Art Fair founder and organiser Lucy Byrne says Hazel – ‘who won the People’s Choice Award in 2017 too’ – was a clear winner.

Comments from people included ‘love her colour and the way she makes the light play’; ‘the texture was irresistible’; ‘absolutely stunning, would love to get work from her in the future’, and ‘the colours draw you in, very realistic / very calming’.

Lucy adds: “Hazel’s truly stunning work continues to win her huge numbers of fans and we can all see why.

“Landscapes in general, and trees in particular, have a timeless appeal, and the way she is able to portray the light on a forest floor in paint never fails to astound me. A very well-deserved winner!”