Kim Watkins, also known as Random Stuff, has been a full-time artist for over 10 years, she didn’t start out life doing that and spent many years as a staff nurse before leaving the health service to bring up her daughters in Kingston. She has lived there, with her husband and a variety of animals since 1994 and is happier there, than anywhere else in the world. She also spent 13 happy years as a Teaching assistant at Modbury School, but after becoming ill, both mentally and physically, whilst recovering, she re-evaluated and became a full-time artist, a decision that she has never regretted as she has a passion for what she does and has discovered that many of her customers feel the same!

She is a member of the Association of British Naïve artists and creates beautiful, unique pictures using recycled paper and sews them together on her sewing machine. Each naïve creation contains engaging and nostalgic materials, rescued from a large variety of sources; each piece is therefore, not just a visual narrative but also tells a story through the materials she has used. Kim has always recycled things and hates waste and enjoys the fact that she is using other people’s rubbish in a fun and wacky way! She takes inspiration from all-around her, and it satisfies her inner Womble!

Word soon spread around Kingston and beyond and arriving on an almost daily basis, deliveries from friends and locals of old, interesting bits of paper and empty bottles, (which she removes the labels from) feature heavily in her work. These mostly become removable covers for notebooks and journals, all again sewn together.

Kim now works virtually every day in a lovely little shed in her garden, where the sun shines through the windows (and even the rain sounds great on the roof!) watching the birds on a recycled bird table and working hard, she’s never been happier.

She is very pleased to have been asked to be a part of a new collective of makers and collectors in Modbury, called Fourteen A, next door to the post office and is thoroughly enjoying her Wednesdays manning the shop.

As well as creating pictures, she has also designed and makes a large range of brooches, made from cereal boxes with only the pin on the back being new, no two are the same. Her journals and notebooks are made using a huge array of pre-loved papers and have proved to be incredibly popular. She produces a printed calendar every year, with 12 brand new designs, these are just back from the printers and are available at Fourteen A in Modbury and on her website.

She has been delighted to have been selected to exhibit at Delamore Arts for the last two years, which lasts for the whole month of May. In the summertime, and into the autumn she attends various craft fairs and as a member of South Hams Art Forum (SHAF), she exhibits for two weeks in October, in the market hall in Kingsbridge as part of their annual arts trail.

In the winter and spring, Kim will again host workshops, where people get the opportunity to learn new skills, have some special time for themselves and leave with their own creation, her feedback from this year’s events has been fantastic and fills her with joy. She will be booking more later in the year.