• Vibrant abstract painting of sunflowers with green swirling stems and broad leaves in a colorful vase on a red and white table with a blue and purple background.
  • Abstract circular painting with vibrant colors radiating from a black center, featuring orange, yellow, red, purple, and blue hues.
  • Smiling woman sitting in an art studio with a painting on the table.
  • Colorful rooster painting on a textured background
  • Person wearing blue gloves painting an abstract design with green and blue colors on paper, with a cup of paints on the table.
  • A man in a white shirt and black jacket holding a cup stands next to colorful abstract paintings on a wall.
  • Woman standing in front of colorful abstract paintings, wearing a vibrant patterned blouse and white pants.
  • Person drawing a portrait on paper resting on an open book with photographs of a woman, on a paint-splattered desk.
  • Two men in an art studio, one seated, painting on a canvas, the other standing beside him.
  • Person in a blue shirt smiling and holding a brush next to an abstract painting with vibrant colors and various patterns.

Geraldine Crimmins - Creative Director

My emotional connections to friends, family, interiors, and the landscapes of my birthplace, Ireland are what I explore and express through my paintings and drawings.

Both painting and voluntary work have played a vital role in helping me reconnect with society after experiencing homelessness and addiction.

I became a professional artist in 2017, when I realised that others valued my work enough to purchase it, and through receiving awards and being offered exhibition opportunities.

In January 2023, I founded Drummond Street Artists to create opportunities for fellow artists who have been affected by homelessness.


@geraldine_crimmins

Andy Li - Artist

I am homeless, sleeping on the streets. I can’t go to college as I have no fixed address. Painting helps me get through the day. I enjoy coming to the art workshops for the friendships, food and hot drinks. I have fun there and I am working on improving my art.

Genie - Artist

I started painting about three ago whilst incarcerated. 

I find painting extremely relaxing and therapeutic. 

Now I’m in a hostel and come to the workshops to paint. It’s a safe environment I feel respected. 

I’m drawn to painting Iconic African figures along with North American Indians as I feel a spiritual connection to them.

Woman holding a blue abstract painting depicting a night sky with stars, a comet, and a large white circular feature, standing indoors against a dark background with a plant.

Rita Caso - Artist

When I create, it’s a personal achievement. 

It has to be beautiful and useful.  Just looking at a painting, it will help you to relax, free your mind and then be yourself. For me its a good therapy. 

My painting is just a symbolic message.

An artist displaying two colorful abstract paintings featuring face-like shapes, sitting at a workbench in a studio filled with art supplies.

John Joseph Sheehy MacSheehy - Artist

Depression is debilitating, anxiety can anchor you to a fear and hopelessness. My writing offers an escape route.

The act itself, the words that flow through me, offers a temporary reprieve from the pain that plagues me.

These stories, poems, monologues and images have all emerged from the struggle against grief, misery and mental ill health.

Writing gives me courage and the compulsive need to speak to a world that fails to listen to the likes of me offers some self-respect, some self-protection.

My writing and art are reckless; they are not polished or embedded in a literary tradition. Rather, they are a dance from a damaged soul, unrestrained but truthful.

@johnsheehyart

Man sitting at a cluttered art table, holding a colorful painting of a green-faced creature with yellow hair on a canvas, surrounded by art supplies and paint containers.

Michael Crosswaite - Artist

Michael Crosswaite has spent the past decade crafting his own unique vision of British life. His paintings reflect our cultural hybridity - a strange blend of Stonehenge, Animals Police and Acid House. His work is humorous and irreverent, depicting the countryside of England in surprising and surreal ways.

Through his work, Michael invites us to question the status quo and challenge traditional heartland values.

His aim is to help us open our minds to new possibilities.

With a sense of fun and a devilish gaze, Crosswaite's art will set your imagination on fire and transport you to a whole new world of visual possibilities. @Organicatroll

A person smiling in an art studio, holding a bottle. They are wearing a plaid shirt and a cap. There is a painting with abstract designs on the table in front of them, and art supplies are visible in the background.

Dave Sohanpal - Artist

My art explores how I feel, which allows me to express different ideas. I try use my traumatic experiences as making art can be cathartic. For me making art is an escape and a fulfilment which gives me back my freedom. No one can tell me what to draw or paint, or how I should do it.

It wasn't therapy, lectures or pills that fixed me, it was art that saved me and my sanity.

My work takes on various forms intended to draw in the viewer as coauthor and witness, creating new and unpredictable cycles of thought and association, providing an experimental chance to challenge perceptions, perspectives and assumptions.

I try to make art vibrant, colourful and positive and hope that my art will inspire and make change.

I contributed a chapter to the book "The Colour of Madness" published by Pan Macmillan.

@davesohanpal1

A person holding a circular artwork depicting a stylized portrait of a woman with a headscarf. The person is wearing glasses and a flat cap, standing indoors next to a plant and a yellow structure.

Lui - Artist

Lui started his working life early as a woodworker and later on as a metalworker. After experiencing periods of homelessness in London, he began to work as a sign maker. It was just eighteen years ago he transformed from sign maker to art maker! and to an artist.

He is also a talented wood carver and loves turning items he has found on the street into artwork, and often makes and stretches canvas made from the wood and materials found on the street or at recycling centres.

He says, "whatever you want in life start chasing it now, before it's too late."

He has donated a body of works to charities that support homeless and vulnerable people.

His artworks are on permanent exhibition in London at:

  • Acton Homeless Concern

  • Damien Centre

  • Emmaus House

  • Upper Room

W luisartgallery.wordpress.com

Person holding a bright green abstract painting depicting a forest with trees that have blue and black branches.

rifko - Artist

Painting is a compulsion. Now I have the space to do art, it just rolls out, one piece into the next.

I tend to have multiple pieces running at once, mostly because I don't know what I'm doing and I mix too much paint and make a colour that is so good and I'm scared that l'll never be able to make it again. So I want to use all of it, but I also hate to waste any paint.

But painting is teaching me patience too, it's nice to come back a week or more later and add a few touches that transform a piece from boring to vibrant, layers added over time. It's calming.

Edmund Cavill - Artist

Drawing helps me to make sense of the world.

I am a 52-year-old artist, graffiti artist and musician. I have an Arts Degree with Distinction from the Metropolitan College of Art and won the Special Achievement Award.

I ran a business teaching graffiti workshops and creating murals and interiors.

I had another of many bipolar episodes at the beginning of lockdown, lost my family and business and ended up in a hostel for two years.

I like coming to the Drummond Street Artists workshop for inspiration and companionship.

Person holding a cup standing in front of abstract paintings

Lewis Austin - Artist

I think of my Art as life itself, a rich tapestry of thoughts, fantasies, hopes, dreams and fears all woven together to create a collage of dramatic impermanence. In my work I explore the dichotomies of life, the nuances of Human behaviour, the polarities of life and death, chaos and stillness, loss and gain, surrender and control. My work focuses on exploring the fragments of myself, trying to weave them back to life through surrendering to the necessity of Death that always leads me back to the process of living and being reborn in every moment.

I explore the dance between the polarities and the visceral space in the middle, where the two forces meet, merge and become anew.

@lewisedwardaustin

Angie - Artist

I enjoy bringing nature indoors. To incorporate images within our homes allows us to connect with nature in an indirect way in which many of us find difficult to do in a busy concrete jungle like London.

All my art works are inspired by a place of joy. I believe that the things we bring into our space emit energy that can enhance our emotional well-being positively or negatively. With each piece I intend to bring a little more joy to the viewers.

@a_makkie

Barry - Artist

I ended up homeless due to no fault eviction. I was given a place in a hostel as I have chronic health conditions. I started learning to draw and paint at the workshops. Now I feel the need to develop my skills and make art. 

I feel safe here, no judgments and I get encouragement and tuition.

Eugene Little - Artist

I started painting at 14. I have a degree in Fine Arts and have also studied at the Royal Academy for three years.

I feel my talent is a gift from the gods. All my life, my art has been figurative. I have studied under some masters.

At 29 l had a breakdown, lost my family and became homeless. That sense of homelessness has never left me.

I like coming to the art workshop at Old Diorama to be with other artists and to share the language of Art.

James Gray - Artist

(I Dream in Colour )

My journey into the art world started over ten years ago after a family bereavement I found myself homeless.

I lived on the streets and during this time I joined in an art therapy class in the Passage Resource centre. I became a regular attendee as it offered a safe space to create and a release from the situation I found myself in.

I slowly found myself falling in love with art. The cascading colours and the dreamy contours became my closest friend. I felt alive again, the world was my canvas and I was ready to show everyone how I was feeling and how being homeless turned me into an artist.

I am happy to say I have exhibited my artwork in many places including:

  • The Guardian

  • Spitalfields Market

  • Outpost

  • 54 the Gallery (Mayfair)

  • @graymosaic

JP - Artist

I'm JP, an artist and poet from North London, and a creative ambassador for @amuzn.app

After experiencing a breakdown around five years ago I ended up losing almost everything, myself included. This resulted in me experiencing homelessness a few times.

Painting and creating help me to make sense of the world around me.

I'm now at a place where I create murals and custom pieces, and facilitate workshops with a focus on confidence-building and mental health. I've held workshops and exhibitions through the One Festival and Old Diorama Arts Festival.

@notjustanotheridea

Bahja Mahamed - Artist

My journey into art started when I was little, with black-and-white sketching.

Homeless in a hostel with my family during Covid, I volunteered for the One Fest of Homeless Arts at Old Diorama and discovered painting.

Painting has become a way of relieving my stress.

I paint in the art group and on my own, learning to be confident with colours.

It is an honour to be exhibiting for the art group, and I am grateful to be learning so much.

@cali.bahja

Mary Vallely - Artist

I discovered art as a child in Ireland.

I have experienced homelessness since the age of 14 years. When I came to England I suffered quite a traumatic few years.

l attended St Martins in the Fields, which ran an art group, and Crisis Commercial Street which helped me get a grant to study at college.

I gained several certificates in 2008 and showed my work at a number of galleries and exhibition spaces.

My work is based on my moods and the expression of my depression.

© mary @sunburst1964

Richard Anderson- Artist

I started drawing at school, and I enjoyed drawing.

I experienced homelessness and spent time in hostels with my sister.

Art helps me to concentrate. It makes me feel calm and helps my nerves.

I started coming to the art classes recently and am developing my own style.

I like putting attention to detail in my drawings.

Sean Griffin- Artist

I come from a world of addiction and homelessness. I draw the city around me. The themes of order and chaos figure strongly in my art; authority and freedom, democracy and tyranny.

On a formal level I am motivated by how colour and form can find an accommodation between these themes. My interest in figuration centres mostly on pushing it towards abstraction. This practice currently best describes the urban landscapes I paint, standing on the edge of a blizzard of signs, rules and responses to the environment and the media.

@seangriffin390

Fatima Salem- Artist

I paint to relieve stress and anxiety. I enjoy being creative and it calms my mind. I'm drawn to paint natural life, buildings and people, and to experiment with colour. I take time to focus and concentrate on the art piece. My homelessness was a dark journey. I got into a hostel and received help. I come to Drummond Street Artists to be creative and relax.

Sarah Breckenridge - Artist

I have always been creative since childhood, and have dabbled in metalwork, woodwork and photography as well as traditional art.

I love painting landscapes and my inspiration comes from impressionist artists like Monet and Manet. Now my artwork is inspired by Pointillism.

I have recently completed a floristry course, where we had to sketch our designs using various mediums such as watercolour, graphite and pastels, so it has helped me learn new skills in drawing, painting and the elements and principles of design, as well as colour theory.

I am most happy when out and about in nature.

My experiences of homelessness involved being moved about "from pillar to post" which was quite unsettling.

Now I have some kind of stability in my life, and I am grateful for opportunities to have my artwork exhibited here at this Centre, and last year at the 02 Centre in Finchley Road and at Belsize Community Library.

Shakir - Artist

Shakir has been working on textured cross-media for a decade, having years of practice including attending The Chelsea College of Art.

He loves experimenting with surface and with interesting combinations, especially of opposites and the uncommon, including found objects.

Having suffered homelessness previously as a consequence of grief, and more recently due to London's continuing insecure housing and lack of protection, his life has started a new chapter after months in hospital and ICU as a result of Covid and its subsequent effects.

Having sworn to not display the past, the work now being exhibited is exclusively a study of his progress in re-learning to see and draw and in new hand-eye coordination, starting from scratch after the neurological damage of Long Covid.

@textural.beats