Global recognition for local face painter

Thursday 28 November 2019

Guernsey based face painter, Joni Nettleship, has been invited to teach alongside some of the world's best face and body artists at a convention in the UK.

The self-taught artist will attend the prestigious UK Face Painting Convention in October next year, after being chosen to take part.

She set up her business, Face Panting by Joni, in Guernsey around five years ago and it has grown in success since then.

"It was purely by accident," she explained. "I was painting my children's faces and then people said 'will you come and do a birthday party?' and I fell into this job that I absolutely love!

Pictured: Joni painting at an event.

"When I first started I didn't have a clue what I was doing and I spent about a year teaching myself how to paint before I had the guts to go out and market myself. It was the best decision I ever made because now I do it every weekend, in the summer holidays, at Christmas, at Halloween etc."

The hard work paid off and Joni now works full time as a local face painter, attending a huge variety of events including children's parties, weddings and corporate events.

"The lovely thing about face painting is it's different for different people," she continued. "Toddlers love becoming a different character. If you paint them as a cat, they become a cat. If you paint them as a lion, they become a lion. To see them emerge into something different is really magical. Then it means something different to a teen who may lack a bit of confidence and wants something sparkly round their eye. Then it means something different to someone on a hen party, when the whole lot of them are having a bit of glitter and it brings everyone together.

Pictured: Some of Joni's body art work.

"It means something to everyone and it's just a lovely, happy job to be in."

 Joni taught at the UK convention for the first time two years ago after applying for a vacancy, and has been invited to return this year along with some of the world's best artists.

"I went as an attendee to the convention and I thought, 'I want to teach here'," she said. "I gave myself that goal of 'one day I am going to be instructing here'.

"When I was invited over to return to instruct I jumped at the chance because it's a really prestigious thing to be asked to do! I'll be teaching a couple of classes there, teaching other face painters how to progress their skills, giving the tips and instructions."

Pictured: some of Joni's recent work.

Joni is continuing to make a name for herself in the UK face painting community and was even asked to become a blogger for the popular Face Painting Shop.

"I work really hard on my marketing and I think it's really important that people see a gallery of your work," she added. "If you are in a visual industry I think it's very important that you have those pictures online and you have a social media presence."

The UK Face Painting Convention, which will have an 'Along the Yellow Brick Road' theme, is due to take place on 1 to 5 October 2020.

Pictured top: Some of Joni's recent work.