This year, the Southwest Coast Path celebrates its 50th birthday, so I've set myself the challenge of spending 2023 walking and drawing my way along it and creating 50 pictures out in the wild - one for every year!

The coast path runs from Poole, all the way through Dorset, Devon, Cornwall and Somerset, ending in Minehead, making it, at 630 miles, the UK's longest National Trail. And the Southwest Coast Path Association is the charity which helps to protect and maintain it. It costs £945,000 a year just to keep this valuable path open, protected and in good shape, so I am raising funds to help it continue its important work. If you are someone who has walked it, cares about right to roam, and/or cares about protecting our coastline, then please consider donating what you can to help.

I'm calling the trail The Creative Path, as I will certainly be on my own creative journey over the year, but also because I will be offering Creative Path workshops to communities along the way, hopefully encouraging more people to experience the joy of getting outside, on the path, and being creative.

The aim is, at the end of the year, to gather the pictures that are created on the path and display them somewhere on the Dorset coastline, in order to share the experience more widely and inspire others to also explore the path, or pick up a sketchbook. If you know of a small place that might be open to such a display, please do get in touch!

By supporting my campaign, you'll be helping the Association to protect and preserve this amazing asset, helping to make it resilient in the face of a changing world, and make it an even more accessible, wonderful place to be. With a cost of around £1400 per year for each mile, every penny really does count, so please give generously!