FROM nail varnish and glue guns to a suitcase full of sand, one Harrow artist tells the Harrow Times about her love of colour and experimenting with new mediums ahead of her exhibition next week.

Following the success of her first Open Studio in Harrow last November and the Salterns Open Studio in Hampshire in April, artist and mental health advocate Katie Moritz, of Lower Road, Harrow, is putting on another exhibition called ‘Paintings from my Suitcase‘.

Having already sold on some customer favourites, her newest project is inspired by her travels across the world including Zanzibar, Iceland, Thailand, Turkey, Tenerife and Venice.

She said: “I was 19 and my mum took me to Morocco and I had never been anywhere quite like it that before – it was amazing, the colours and the places we went to, I just wanted to capture it all.

“We later went to Gambia and I was just so inspired by it all. I always take a sketch book with me and do quick drawings when I can, as it is often less intrusive than snapping photos.

“It’s also a way to remember something better than a photo. I like to enhance the colours and paint the colour from my memory, and from how they made me feel at the time.

“I have about ten or 15 years of sketch books, since my honeymoon in 2005, of the places Mike and I have visited. I went in my loft to get them down to work from and it was like Christmas, or like a shop, there were so many.

“I sold a lot of my old paintings at my previous exhibitions, so it was the good excuse I needed to sit down and start painting new ones for this.”

Although a social media manager and marketing expert by trade – who also works with charity Mind in Harrow – she says she has never wanted to be an artist as a career as it is something she takes too much happiness from.

Mrs Moritz, 36, said: “My paintings are all about joy. I would never paint anything that doesn’t mean something to me – I refuse to just rattle paintings out, that’s not what I am about.

“The best thing is that they can mean something to other people too. My customers can see something in them that they recognise or that they can associate with in some way, and it means all the more to them and to me for that.

“I want people to be able to walk in to my paintings and experience them, rather than just looking at them.”

Asked what her favourite medium to work in was, she explained her recent use of nail varnish in one of the pieces for the upcoming exhibition, along with using anything from glue guns to glitter glue plus a mobile app called Infinite Painter.

She said: “If I can make it stick to the art I’ll use it. I only use whatever materials that would work best with the scene, rather than predefining it.

”My latest thing is digital art. They are all originals despite being made on my phone, because it is my finger and my colours and my work that goes into them.

“It’s great to work with as you can do it quickly, and you can do it anywhere without having to lug a load of equipment about with you, it’s so accessible.

“It’s also a lot of fun, and not only do you get a sketch out of it but also the finished piece.”

Her original artwork and cards, prints and calendars will be on show on Saturday, November 21and Sunday, November 22 from 12pm to 5pm, at 44a Dudley Court, in Lower Road, Harrow.