I had been painting outside for 23 months. No walls, no roof, the wind, the rain, a fuckin' leaking cloud, a strong gust of wind the blows the canvas off the easle and onto the ground, days the end to quickly, a moon tha is not a light bulb.

This was a very difficult period of my life. It was a scarfice, a short cut. I had sold £13,400 worth of paintings in 5-6 weeks and had enought money to purchase a property in London. And that was excellent. But I had to use all that money to pay for our first property. Consequently I had little to spare. So I painted outside. It took me some time to start to recover from this investment. When I was getting stronger... my wife needed a car, so I helped her, then I purchased the freehold on the property, then Erika's father was dying... so we flew out to Canada to spend time with him. Certain plans were postponed that I was really looking forward to and counting on. But life is not easy and one must do what one can to do their best. These delays made things very difficult. For I had spent funds to be with Erika and her ill father in Canada. Winter was on top of me and to be honest I was not that strong. I had painted outside for two winters. And my body was breaking down... nose bleeds, hemroids, stomach and digestive problems... and there was little chance I was going to find myself painting outside for another winter.

No matter what happens.. never stop painting. This is one of my golden rules. My number one rule is love my wife with all my heart and soul.

Erika and I phoned 14 studio complex spaces in East London, I had viewed industrial units with the intention to purchase, I had called the Council... nothing was opening. Across the street from us is a teacher resource centre... I asked Micky (the care taker) about any possible spaces. He recommended a place a few minutes from our house... so I walked there, but it was underdevelopment. While walking back I knocked on 5,000 square meter industrial unit. I asked the owner if I could rent or buy space. He was kind and said he was in need of more space and was unable to help, but he said, 'Why don't you try the Vicor across the street'. So I did.

The Vicor was not there, but I left a bussiness card with an assistant. Two weeks later Simon called me. The next day he visited our home. He offered me a space to paint in, and storage for the 250-300 paintings that over run our second bedroom. We talked about art, painters... I showed him some of my paintings. He was very impressed. Rather than pay rent for the studio and storage, we have an agreement that I donate paintings to be hung permanently in local parishes. The paintings below have been donated to local Parishes and is on permanent display in there.

Thank you so much to St Matthias' Church and Simon and Angus for their help.

Patrick John Mills

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