When Sharon White warns me I will leave her studio covered in glitter, she's not wrong.

The workshop, based upstairs at Atelier in Saxon Square, Christchurch, is an explosion of sparkly pink, purple and turquoise, with a few feathers thrown in for good measure.

Her work, most of which is produced on huge canvases, is fabulously decadent, yet beautifully pretty, with her latest creations depicting angel wings, hummingbirds and lotus flowers.

She's busy packaging up the Higher Realm collection ready for an exhibition at the renowned Al Badia Golf Club in Dubai, as well as running the Atelier exhibition space.

Mum-of-two Sharon, who spent 17 years in art education, admits she still can't quite believe her luck as, just a few years ago she was 'in a bad way' following a marriage breakdown, a bout of pleurisy and a diagnosis of chronic fatigue syndrome.

"That was massive," says Sharon of her divorce.

"It was a bit of a turn around - that wasn't in the plan. Then there was a bit of healing time. I was still painting. I met my husband now, but I almost lost my identity.

"I had my little girl with Greg. I was still trying to be superwoman, I was trying to teach full time, be a mother and just from nowhere I got pleurisy. They thought I had a clot, but it was saying that my whole body had to stop.

"The pleurisy was the easy bit, because then I got chronic fatigue syndrome. It was like my body saying 'you can't do this any more'."

During her year of convalescence, Sharon admits she went through a period of depression, but decided one day to start painting.

"I didn't really have anything - I just went to the kids' art cupboard and created this little beach hut thing," she remembers. "Because it wasn't planned it had taken the pressure off me. So then I did another one. As I was doing it, I could work for three hours - I became a bit addicted.

"It was really big, sparkly, energetic stuff. My work wasn't related to how I'm feeling."

A comment that her work looked 'quite Atlantian', spurred Sharon, 42, to contact the Atlantis resort in Dubai, to ask if she could exhibit there.

"They said they didn't really do that, I had to be part of a design studio. That's where it started. I had always said my work had to be under a different sun, it wasn't for Christchurch, it wasn't for England.

"I was churning it out like you wouldn't believe."

Besides creating pictures for an exhibition in Dubai, Sharon wanted to work under an 'art heals' umbrella. She began working with a group of people with brain injury and set up a project with women with breast cancer, which saw them make beautiful butterflies out of bras.

She toured breast cancer units across the country with the initiative, an experience which left her both humbled and inspired.

"Despite people going through something awful, their positivity was incredible," she says.

"I brought all the butterflies back with me and created the Tree of Life which went to the London Fashion Museum. I thought 'now let's hit the world' - I took it to Dubai."

Sharon was overwhelmed by the reaction to the work, which she says reduced some Muslim men to tears, and has since taken the Tree of Life to eight destinations, including the huge World Art Dubai exhibition.

"My business was flourishing," she says.

"People actually bought the philosophy. I was thinking 'I've got something now'. I was really getting somewhere in my third year, which was last year.

"I will always be an art teacher, but I now know that I'm an artist, art teacher, therapist. It's okay to be the whole thing. I know that what I've got to do is help other people.

"I was doing things for galleries but people are buying my work where it won't just look pretty on the wall, but have a healing influence. So a lot of my collections have been bought by hospitals. That makes me so happy.

"Whatever journey I'm on it's about inspiring and helping people of all abilities and all ages."

In August of last year, Sharon moved her studio to Atelier - formerly Latimer House - and took the building over with a group of other resident artists when the owner decided to move on.

Atelier now features exhibition and selling space, which is rented to a number of local artists, as well as working studios upstairs.

She may be busy, but Sharon is finally happy.

"The exciting thing is you don't know what's around the corner," she says.

"It's very difficult to say 'I'm great at that'. But as long as I can paint I'm fine."

paintingsbysharon.co.uk