The lock down definitely came as a bit of a shock as all the exhibitions I had planned for May had to be postponed. Due to my health situation with Lupus I am 90% of the time in my home and can’t use my studio at the Phoenix for now. So I have created a makeshift studio in our back bedroom that feels like a secret hive of creativity.
At the very start of lock down I decided to run a fun Instagram competition so that every day we are in Lock Down a postcard size artwork could be won. I have decided to run this till the end of May. I have called this completion The Postcard Project. It’s a very simple idea, every morning I post a small watercolour painting on Instagram and ask for people to suggest a title. I choose a winner the following day and pop it in the post. I find the routine of this keeps me going and I love connecting with people online. People are really enjoying receiving their little paintings in the post.
The Postcard Project has led me into my current series of larger works on paper that I have called ‘Love In The Time Of Social Distancing’. The series of paintings created during lock down are watercolours inspired by and born out of the experience of life being reduced down to the essentials. As someone categorised as vulnerable, my day to day is all about home and the familiar. This work is created in that unusual environment. Shapes and symbols as well as recognisable forms gather together like collected treasure.
Lines between work and home are blurred and we are living an alternate reality we never knew could exist. I think this echoes in the work I am making right now and hopefully this also resonates with what so many of us are experiencing globally.
In the mean time I will be taking part in the Artist Online Houses this weekend, and also check out my Postcard Project on my Instagram page, you could win a mini artwork- a momento from this extraordinary time!
Follow the links here to find out more!
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