Hi I am Filomena Spagnolo. I am a single mother of a wonderful, full of beans 7½ year old son. In the weekend and any spare time we have we are doing creative or artistic things. I am a portrait painter and have been painting professionally since 1990 but have really been painting since I could hold a brush!

I started Studio Alessia…. the art studio when I was faced with many changes in my life one being the stillbirth of my daughter Alessia. It was then that I realised that I used art as therapy for myself and my son and it changed our lives. I started to read books on art therapy and wondered how I could use it to help others in the way art helped me. I now have many students with learning difficulties and see them in a class environment as well as in one-on-one sessions.  I also realised that I wanted to change how children and parents perceive art. I want to show that art is not just an activity that children do but that it has many educational benefits and helps with building the attention span of young children, not to mention the therapeutic element to art.  I now want to spread Studio Alessias’ wings and help adults and the elderly with art therapy.  I am investigating courses in art therapy to formalise my knowledge of something I have experienced and truly believe.