Are you wowed by Billie's beautiful paintings? Then you'll be even more amazed to know that she doesn't even need a paintbrush to create them!

Billie Jo English, who runs Q Bee Studios 44 Tattoo Parlour, has recently hung a collection of paintings across one of the walls in her shop, in a sort of mini exhibit for her customers.

The pieces depict Japanese ladies in traditional Geisha dress, and were all created during the latest lockdown.

As is her custom, Billie painted them using her hands, and any materials she has lying around. Enjoying the freedom of expression created by physical contact with the canvas, she only picks up a brush to work on the fine details of each picture.

"My fingerprints are in every one of my paintings," she tells me. "They say that you put a bit of yourself into your artwork, and there's definitely a bit of me in mine. I'm imprinted onto it!"

Billie's Japanese ladies came about because of her son Jonathan's love for Japanese art and Anime. They had planned to visit the Liverpool Anime and Gaming Con earlier this year, but lockdown put paid to their plans.

Instead, Billie decided to throw an Anime themed family party, for which she tried her hand at painting a Geisha.

As she learnt more about the Geisha tradition, Billie began exploring the solitary nature of their history, and has thoughtfully imbued their beauty with a sense of quietness and melancholy.

This is not the first time that Billie has concentrated her pieces on female experience. Keen to "celebrate different cultures" in her work, and inspired by the achievements of women from all around the world, she also found herself painting feminine figures during the time she spent living in the Middle East.

From Abu Dhabi to Delamere Forest

While living in Bahrain in 2016, Billie began offering children's art classes, and her lively, expressive style soon got her noticed.

After receiving several private commissions, she was asked to take part in a live painting event at Bahrain Financial Harbour.

This led to a series of solo exhibitions, and, perhaps most importantly, an invite to the Abu Dhabi Al Dhafra camel festival!

Here, 23 different artists came together to create artworks of the camels, who had all been entered into a beauty contest.

"It's the Crufts of the camel world," Billie says, adding that the most desirable camels are those with the biggest bottom lip. Because of this, the judges have to make sure that the animals haven't been slipped a sneaky Botox or lip filler injection!

On the stall next door to Billie's was a group of lady weavers from Yemen, who she soon befriended, learning that they, like her, were used to created pieces using scant resources.

Together, they wove a camel out of palm leaves and tree roots, which Billie painted using sap from the indigenous Yemeni dragon blood tree.

Billie had planned to visit the ladies in Yemen this year, but her plans were disrupted by the emergence of the Covid-19 crisis. However, one day, she hopes she will be able to work with them again.

Billie explains that her work stood out from the standard style of artwork in Bahrain and Abu Dhabi, because of its unrestrained and emotional style.

This came in stark contrast to the controlled symmetry and careful calligraphy of many forms of Islamic art, and Billie says that, "Some people looked at my work as if to say: "what on earth is that?""

However, a lot of people also responded really positively to this unfamiliar style, and Billie was commissioned by several cafés and restaurants to paint huge murals across their walls.

Just before Covid hit, Billie also visited a Buddhist temple in Nepal, spending two days with the children living there. They had no English, and so Billie was forced to communicate with them through her artwork.

"By the end of the second day, every child had a piece of artwork of their own," she smiles.

Through her world travels, "from Asia to Frodsham," she laughs, Billie has developed her own "signature" artistic style, informed by all her different experiences and encounters. "I've met so many people from all over the world. It's been great, I've loved it."

Her studio is full of souvenirs from her time in Bahrain, Abu Dhabi, Bali and Nepal. "I've got things from all over the place in the studio, and I love it, I think it works."

With coronavirus keeping her grounded for the time being, she is now looking forward to focusing more on her home environment.

For example, she loves visiting Delamere Forest, and enjoys bringing her impressions of the wood into her paintings.

The Painting Process

Billie, who has never been formally trained as an artist, tells me that her paintings materialise very quickly.

After forming the image in just a few hours, she spends a long time poring over the intricate details, tweaking them until they're just right.

"I have no idea what I'm doing when I start," Billie says. "It's forever changing. With art, you can't just go, "This is my idea and I'm going to stick to it."

This method is very different to Billie's day job as a tattoo artist, which demands precision and discipline.

Although requiring painstaking concentration, Billie says that tattooing is also a real social art form, which allows her to get to know and have a laugh with her clients. She even finds that some people end up telling her all their secrets as she works!

Billie's paintings are all for sale - please contact her for more details.

She has an online exhibit with a Moroccan art organisation planned for the end of this month – more details to follow.

Billie's similarly creative Nana has also been busy during lockdown, knitting a range of different hats. These are now on sale in the Q Bee Studio 44 for anyone who'd like one.