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ELEANOR BECOMING

@eleanorbecoming

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Art | Mind | Life
🎨Creating energetic + uplifting artworks
🧠Sharing therapy training insight
🌞Rebuilding at 38 after grief, motherhood + survival

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38 today.

No grand resolutions. Just a commitment to keep changing, keep listening to myself, and keep becoming.

All of it is me. And all of it is just right. by @eleanorbecoming

A little introduction, for those of you who are new here. 🤍

The last couple of years have changed me in ways I could never have imagined. Becoming a mum, going through life-saving treatment, and coming out the other side have all made me think and feel very differently about what I want to do with my time, my creativity, and my life.

I don’t have all the answers — quite the opposite. But I’ve always been interested in what makes us who we are, how we find purpose in difficult experiences, and how creativity can help us understand ourselves.

So this page is a little experiment in all of that.

Thank you for being here, whether you’ve just arrived or you’ve been quietly following along for a while. I’m very glad you found me.

Here’s to whatever comes next. ✨

Ellie x by @eleanorbecoming

And she’s FINISHED 🥳🎉
I started this painting 6 years ago after my Mum passed away. It was cathartic. And so needed.
But it always felt like unfinished business. Like it was never quite done. Maybe like the grief itself…
About two months ago I picked it back up and gave it a new life.
But there’s still something so meaningful for me about having those layers of grief that sit behind what you can see now. Some of the lines of the old paint work are still visible, and I love that.
I’ve kept much of the same colour pallet, and woven in new waves, new emotion, new shadows, new joy, new grief, new light, new reflection - and HOPE, never forget hope - kind of like the years etched in a tree’s circles of growth - the painting’s original inspiration.
It’s a reminder to me that whatever life throws at us - and it will throw hard - that nothing is permanent. We’re all in a moment of change and movement. And whatever comes… will also pass.
Both beauty and brutality 🤍 by @eleanorbecoming

Something I’m giving myself grace for:

I spent a long time feeling like I needed to be something or someone.

Have a clear point of view. Be certain of my passions and interests. Know exactly what I liked, what I didn’t, what I stood for. Fit into a neat little box that was easy to understand and interpret.

Ha.

People don’t quite work like that.

And honestly, trying to make myself fit was exhausting.

My own inflexibility, really.

I’m learning to recognise that more than one truth can exist at once.

That I can feel one way today and another tomorrow. That some things coexist for hours, days, weeks, months, even years, while other things shift and change.

We’re constantly moving between different versions of ourselves, different feelings, different needs and different truths.

There’s a real relief in that.

A blessing, actually 🤍 by @eleanorbecoming

A snapshot of my abstract work, most of which has come about this year.

I never set out to have a style. In fact, it’s made me wonder whether I’m being brave enough to try new things. But I’m so drawn to organic, natural lines and a sense of flow and growth.

And on reflection… I’ve noticed what seem to be depictions of the four elements in my work: Earth, Air, Fire and Water. Prominent in my thinking right now…

Curiouser and curiouser ✨ by @eleanorbecoming

Being honest… when you’re documenting an art project on Instagram, it’s tempting to keep producing new pieces.

It’s fun, satisfying and constantly stimulating. New work, new colour palettes, new subject matters, new feelings. Plus, lots of interesting content. Win, win.

But there’s something it doesn’t quite satisfy.

The long labour. The big piece that takes months, built slowly, layer after layer of blue. Not particularly exciting content when you’re showing the same thing day after day, but that’s often what the work requires.

A larger piece tests my patience and commitment, but keeps me in flow.

I love having a balance of both.

I have a larger piece in reds and browns that’s still a work in progress, but I’m enjoying the pastels so much at the moment that the canvas will have to wait.

It’s a practice in following what I’m drawn to, rather than what makes the best content. by @eleanorbecoming

There was a short period of my life – three weeks – when I wasn’t sure how many more landscapes I would see.

And while I’m eternally grateful that I received an optimistic prognosis and responded positively to treatment, I still had six months of chemotherapy ahead of me to get there.

In the past, I’d heard unwell people talk about seeing the world differently: the perfect patterns in nature, the beauty of the changing seasons, the colours of our world somehow enhanced. I could understand how you might find that perspective when your life is threatened, but I’d never experienced it for myself. Until last year.

I genuinely practised being present and appreciating things, even if only for a moment, every single day. Some days I immersed myself in it.

Now that I’m better, life has a tendency of taking over again in many ways. What’s next? What’s coming? Are we prepared? What needs to be done? And so on.

But I’ll never forget how it felt to be on the brink of it all slipping away too soon, and how lucky I feel to be here.

Maybe that’s why I started depicting landscapes this year. I’d never even considered trying to capture a beautiful natural scene before, but something made me want to start this summer.

Maybe it’s my way of saying, ‘Thank you, Universe, for allowing me to keep seeing these wondrous places.’

This is my little way of keeping a piece of them ✨🦋 by @eleanorbecoming

Just a couple of everlasting roses to brighten your day, if you need them 🌹🌹

#EverlastingRoses #StillLifePainting #OilPainting #FloralArt #artforthesoul by @eleanorbecoming

I didn’t actually plan on sharing any of this, btw.

I was scared of going back to a stressful 9–5 after being ill last year.

I’d always loved painting, so I thought maybe Instagram could help me build a little creative side hustle.

But over these past few months, it’s become more than that.

I think there’s something important about showing how you got to a place – the light and the shadow. It gives the work meaning. It shows the process, the progress and dare I say, the journey.

In truth, sharing is helping me process some of it, too. Testing what I feel comfortable sharing, and in what order. And somehow, it’s helping me get closer and closer to myself again.

Another lovely, unexpected thing has been all the beautiful strangers who’ve become friends in this community. I’ve been genuinely blown away by people’s kindness and support.

I can only hope to reciprocate and pay it forward in whatever ways I can 🤍

#CreativeJourney #ArtAsTherapy #FindingMyWayBack #CreativityAndHealing #PaintingJourney MakingArt CreativeCommunity PersonalGrowth ArtAndLife by @eleanorbecoming

My thirties have been a baptism of fire, with life events that have tested my heart, mind, body and faith.

Losing my mother, becoming a mother, and surviving a life-threatening condition have thrown me into new parallel worlds, each unfamiliar and disorientating in its own way.

But alongside them has come growth beyond my imagination.

Two of these life shifts — losing mum, the frightening diagnosis — have brought fear and depths of pain I can barely put into words. But they can hold beauty, too.

Hear me out. Amid the devastation, there has also been self-discovery, new opportunity, fresh perspective, unexpected connection and deeper love.

I’m not glamourising suffering, nor am I suggesting it’s the only path to growth or fulfilment. But for me, some of my most profoundly difficult experiences have brought me closer to what makes me uniquely me, and helped me find a little more peace in who that is.

Does this resonate? by @eleanorbecoming

Do you want to know something?

IMO, creating flowers is hands down not my bag.

Flowers are lovely. I love having them in my home. I love having them in my garden. I love seeing other artist’s interpretations of them.

But me depicting them in oil pastels? Nope.

I found it monotonous and felt oddly trapped.

I never feel like that with landscapes or abstracts. They feel instinctive and freeing.

Isn’t that strange?

I’ve realised I’m much happier when I can let go and see where the pastels take me, rather than trying to make something look the way I think it should.

Still, cute rose🌹

#OilPastels #ArtProcess #ArtistLife #CreativeJourney #PastelArt ArtReels ArtistsOfInstagram by @eleanorbecoming

Isn’t the word cringe a bit dated now anyway? Do people still cringe? 😂

For me, it’s pretty simple. If you want to express yourself, and it feels aligned with you, your values and how you want to be represented…

Go ahead and do the thing.

If anyone’s thinking “cringe”, let them.

You’ll probably never hear about it. And if you do, maybe it gives you a little insight into how that person is feeling about something happening in their life.

If they’re close enough, you might be able to help in some way. If they’re not, you don’t need to make it your concern.

You just do you, babe ❤️ by @eleanorbecoming