5 September 2024
Once a year, artists from across the United Kingdom set aside their individual studios and easels to come together, exchange ideas, and reflect collectively on their shared craft and community. From 29 to 31 August 2024, this tradition brought 18 British mouth and foot painters together for a conference at St James Park in Burton on Trent — three days dedicated to art, association business, and the future direction of public engagement.
A Gathering Organised With Purpose
This year's conference was organised by Tom Yendell, Board Member of the VDMFK, whose leadership helped shape an agenda that balanced artistic discussion with practical, forward-looking planning. Alongside the eighteen participating artists, the event drew key representatives of both the Association and the British Mouth and Foot Painting Artists' Publishing House, ensuring that discussions throughout the conference benefited from a genuinely comprehensive range of perspectives — from artists themselves to the organisational and publishing figures who support their work.
Exploring the Craft: Painting Techniques Take Centre Stage
At the heart of the three-day conference sat a deep and detailed exploration of various painting techniques. For a room full of artists who share the unique technical challenge of painting with their mouth or foot, this kind of focused technical discussion offers an invaluable opportunity for mutual learning — allowing artists at different stages of their careers to exchange insights, discuss challenges specific to their adapted painting methods, and learn from one another's individual approaches and solutions.
This emphasis on shared technical dialogue speaks to something important about these gatherings: they are not simply administrative or social occasions, but genuine opportunities for artistic growth, built around the recognition that even highly accomplished artists benefit enormously from candid conversation with peers who understand, firsthand, the particular demands of their craft.
Looking Toward the Future: Evaluation and Social Media
Beyond painting technique, the conference also devoted considerable attention to two increasingly important areas for the Association's continued success: artist evaluations and social media presence. These discussions reflect a thoughtful recognition that supporting artists effectively requires attention not only to artistic development, but to the broader structures and platforms through which their work reaches audiences and earns recognition.
In an era where public awareness and engagement increasingly flow through digital and social channels, dedicating meaningful conference time to social media presence signals the Association's commitment to ensuring that its artists' extraordinary talents reach the widest possible audience — a goal that depends as much on thoughtful public relations strategy as it does on artistic excellence itself.
An Inspiring Voice: Alison Lapper's Personal Journey
Among the conference's most memorable moments was a motivating talk given by the renowned English mouth painter and long-standing Member of the Association, Alison Lapper, who shared insights from her own remarkable personal career. For the eighteen artists in attendance, hearing directly from a figure as accomplished and respected as Alison Lapper offered a uniquely valuable form of inspiration — the kind that comes not from external praise, but from a fellow artist candidly reflecting on her own journey, challenges, and achievements.
Talks of this nature often resonate deeply precisely because they come from someone who has walked the same path — someone who understands, from lived experience, both the particular difficulties and the genuine rewards of building an artistic career as a mouth or foot painter. For many attendees, Alison Lapper's reflections likely offered both practical wisdom and a renewed sense of motivation as they continued to develop their own artistic paths.
Closing the Conference: A Panel on Communication
As the conference drew toward its conclusion, the final day featured a dedicated panel discussion on the topic of Communication — a fitting close to an event that had, throughout its three days, placed such consistent emphasis on how the Association's artists and their work are shared with, and understood by, the wider public. This closing discussion offered participants the chance to synthesise many of the themes explored earlier in the conference, considering together how the Association might continue to strengthen its outreach and public engagement moving forward.
A Milestone Announcement: International VDMFK Day
The conference reached its symbolic conclusion with a particularly exciting announcement: the introduction of an "International VDMFK Day," set for 5 September. This new designated day promises to offer the Association a dedicated annual moment of celebration and visibility — an opportunity to shine a spotlight, each year, on the extraordinary artistic community the VDMFK represents, and to draw renewed public attention to the achievements, resilience, and creativity of its mouth and foot painting artists worldwide.
Announcing this initiative at the close of a conference so heavily focused on public relations and social media presence felt especially fitting, transforming the abstract discussions of the preceding days into a concrete, forward-looking commitment: a tangible new platform through which the Association's mission and artists can reach broader audiences in the years ahead.
A Conference of Lasting Impact
Taken as a whole, the 2024 Conference of British Mouth and Foot Painters achieved a rare and valuable balance — combining rich technical discussion of painting technique, thoughtful strategic planning around evaluation and social media, an inspiring personal reflection from Alison Lapper, and a forward-looking commitment to public communication, all culminating in the announcement of a brand-new International VDMFK Day.
For the eighteen artists who gathered at St James Park in Burton on Trent, and for the representatives of the Association and its Publishing House who joined them, this conference offered far more than three days of meetings. It offered a genuine opportunity to strengthen community bonds, sharpen artistic and organisational thinking, and lay the groundwork for a future in which the remarkable work of British mouth and foot painters reaches an ever-wider and more appreciative audience.
Source: VDMFK News