Southfields Artist Credits NHS For Getting Her Back To Art

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A woman’s fight to reclaim her life from the dragon of fibromyalgia helped by St George!

Juli Fejér, taking part for the first time in Wandsworth Artists Open House 2019, credits an NHS pain course with her remarkable transformation.



“For decades fibromyalgia blighted my life,” says Juli. “I lost my job. I lost touch with friends and became depressed. Just when things seemed at their lowest, my mother died suddenly. I was overwhelmed by despair. Forcing myself to look outwards at the everyday world kept me going.”

“I started to draw on my iPad and share pictures on Facebook. I taught myself how to use new media and began selling paintings online. But the real turning point came in January when I went on an NHS pain management course at St George’s Hospital, Tooting. I was very sceptical because I had tried everything over the past 20 years. I agreed to go because I felt I had nothing to lose. The team at St George’s helped me so much. The skills I learned gave me the confidence to really develop my art.”

Juli uses watercolours, acrylics and marker pen, as well as her beloved iPad. People have said they can see pain in her paintings and she often uses purple, the colour associated with fibromyalgia. Her ambition is to make art which is accessible and which people will want to have in their homes.

She says: “I am still in pain, but now it no longer crushes me. I am fighting back against the dragon of fibromyalgia.”

Juli has sold over 100 artworks and has 3000 followers on Instagram. Her favourite subject is landscape, particularly trees. Her style is semi-abstract and she cites Frida Kahlo and Vincent Van Gogh as big influences, both artists whose lives were marked by suffering.

Visit venue 35 on the Southfields Trail to see Juli’s work, and that of her neighbour, Anne Edmonds. On display are paintings, prints, cards & gifts.

October 10, 2019