Big Dog Bath

Sam Toft has created an imaginary world inhabited by one Ernest Hemmingway Mustard, professional tuneless hummer and part-time hurricane predictor of Brighton and Hove. He lives in a not-so-damp basement flat with his dear lady wife Violet and Doris their grumpy and rather portly Jack Russell Terrier. Sam follows their adventures along the Prom and across the globe. She works in oil pastels and coloured inks using proper artists’ materials along with kitchen towels, items of cutlery, steel pen nibs, pencil dust, old tooth brushes as well as her innovative fingers and thumbs technique.

About Sam Toft:

I did not always want to be an artist.

My earliest ambition was to work in a post office. Or to join a circus that would accept clumsy acrobats, and had a nice elephant or two. I think now I would have liked to have been a dancer or a gardener or a dog trainer. But I like painting pictures just fine.

It is not a life that would suit everyone, I don’t think. I spend a lot of time alone with my dogs, walking or thinking, planning and drawing, dreaming up scary schemes, motivating myself to do something new. I find I cannot concentrate when there is too much going on. I am one of those people who gets distracted easily. I have to factor in a lot of time for sitting and staring at the wall.

I am often asked how long it takes me to complete a picture. The truth is, I can work very quickly when everything is going my way. I can make a small picture in an hour or so. But then there are months when I do nothing at all, but rush around in circles, filling my paper bin with rubbish, feeling like a failure but trying to stay positive until that blissful Eureka moment hits. The best pictures take the least effort. But it’s like that oh-so-casual ‘no makeup’ look, huh girls? It takes ABSOLUTELY AGES to pull off. And sometimes it doesn’t work at all.

In the absence of a suitable circus to run away with, I amassed an impressive CV. I have been a Fire Extinguisher Sales Person, a Death Grants Advisor, a Wedgwood Rooms Worker, an Accountant’s Assistant, a Silver Service Waitress, a Catering Manager, a Yoga Teacher. Plenty of experience as a bar maid, and cleaner. Never short of a job or three through school, but I could never decide what to study. I was reasonably good at a few subjects, not particularly talented in any but English. I guess I had been speaking it a while by then. My A levels were English, Maths, General Studies and French. My year off was spent disastrously au pairing in France. My degree, a proposed 4 year sandwich in International Business Studies, the 3rd year spent working for some super company in France maybe? After completing the first year, like a fish out of water, I transferred to the second year of a Social Sciences degree where I studied Economics, Politics, Industrial Relations, Sociology, Philosophy, and then joined the Civil Service. Strange that after all that studying, I still felt like a fish out of water.

I have had some lucky breaks in my life. But as someone wise once said, the harder you work, the luckier you get. And I have been a hard worker in my time.

I had never thought of Art as a career, or even something I was particularly very good at. I guess it was more that I had worked hard at a lot of different things, and really could not settle with any. Like I mentioned earlier, I am quite good at a few things, and not brilliant at any. So when I found myself inspired to make a living from drawing pictures, I approached it in the same way I approach most things. With enthusiasm and resilience. I can be single minded and methodical when working towards a goal. Obsessive some might say!

Never a day goes by when I do not thank my lucky stars for what I do. I see myself as an incredibly fortunate person. I make my living from drawing a whole bunch of my imaginary friends. I have a lovely home, plenty of good (real!) friends, two gorgeous dogs, a healthy mind (!) and body, and I am a grateful person. In a way it has come full circle. My imagination was something that perhaps set me apart as a child. I found it hard to make friends, and spent so many years inventing them instead!

To read more about Sam Toft, click this link: https://samtoft.co.uk/pages/biog