Four years ago, Artist Lizzie Walker-Arnott, 32, from Winchester found her trip of a lifetime turned on its head, after quitting her job to temporarily move to the snowy mountains of Japan in February 2020.
Just days into her time in Hokkaido, the northernmost of Japan’s main islands, famed for its powder snow – the global pandemic hit and Lizzie was locked down, over 7,500 miles from home.
To help take her mind off the situation she launched herself into illustration, creating mountain inspired artwork, which has since led her to produce a new series of snowsports inspired art, helping to raise funds and awareness for adaptive ski and snowboard charity, Disability Snowsport UK (DSUK).
Lizzie explains, “When the world came to a standstill I was on the other side of the world and it quickly became clear that my travels would need to be put on hold. It was obviously a tough time for everyone, but thankfully, the local mountain resort in Japan did stay open – so we could still get outside and ski. So even though it felt like a bit of a ghost town, there were worse places to be for those few weeks.
“Despite the ability to still get outside – being so far from home and not knowing what was going on created some stress and anxiety, within the adventure of it all. I tried to take the positives and became inspired by the local mountains to create new art – that was my mental outlet.
“I work as a Graphic designer but lockdown in Japan was the catalyst I needed to create my own illustrations and set up my own online shop. I take great inspiration from nature and the mountains and like to simplify themes from the outdoors in my illustrations. I definitely feel at my happiest when I’m outside being active.”
Friends with Chairperson of Disability Snowsport UK, Shona Marsh – Lizzie was recently asked to create a series of bespoke adaptive snowsport designs to help raise funds for the charity.
Lizzie says, “I know how much the outdoors is an outlet for me personally and I wanted to make sure that when people are looking at prints to hang on their wall at home, they see images that are reflective of themselves. There’s lots of mountain and snowsports inspired artwork available in the world, but there’s not so many images that represent adaptive skiers and snowboarders.
“Taking inspiration from snowy landscapes and real places, it’s been a wonderful process to create bespoke illustrations that will allow people to see an image of themselves on their walls. I hope my artwork can inspire more people to experience the mountains and the money raised for DSUK will give opportunities to more disabled children and adults into snowsports – giving them the same feeling of joy and happiness being in the mountains gives to me and so many.”
Lizzie’s prints can be purchased directly here with 100% of proceeds going directly to Disability Snowsport UK: www.disabilitysnowsport.org.uk/shop
