Recovering from keyhole surgery to remove gallbladder
Being in the best health you can be is a good start

It seems that my blog musings have been all about health challenges lately. In truth, that has been my reality and I’m hoping that this recovery after having my gallbladder removed is the last for the foreseeable future. It has caused me considerable pain for the last three years. Covid-19 interrupted surgical plans for everyone, including me.

Doing a Little Happy Dance Grateful That I Can See Properly AgainI have finally recovered from double vision and been discharged from the eye hospital and I’m super happy!

I must admit, four months of struggling to see anything without a double image did get me down, and there were times when I wondered if my eyes would ever get back to normal.

Sudden Double Vision is Scary and A Major Challenge for an Artist

Double vision is another setback but I’m not giving up. I’m figuring out how to deal with it.

Well life has thrown another curve ball. Not only am I still on hold, almost a year later, like tens of thousands of other souls waiting for routine surgery that will make my life a little easier, but over Christmas I woke up to severe double vision. It certainly creates a challenge when you love painting.  The world I see is now very higgledy piggledy!

 The early stages of my painting of a corn flower. A work in progress.

Sometimes, a break from painting is as good as the feel of painting itself, and a break was much needed this summer.

Picking up a brush after a much needed break feels good. Sometimes life gets in the way of things. Health problems, other life pressures and not to mention a global pandemic of Covid that had quickly reached our local area. Everything just shut down.

Normally painting is a zen like process for me, but the worries of life infiltrated that process and I struggled to concentrate. So, I decided to take a break from creating new work in the studio and instead, focussed on our home and garden throughout the summer and autumn, all the while letting my shop tick over. For me it was the right thing to do.

 A selection of my hand painted floral clay hearts

Making air dried clay hearts is a wonderful creative pastime

Airdrying clay is widely available from craft and art stores. I’m experimenting at the moment with different brands, but primarily they all work out the same.  Here is a step by step of how I make my art decoration hearts.

 Art Doodle Sketch Welcoming in the New Year of 2020

Bringing in the new year of 2020 was a welcome hope for the future, not least because the entire Christmas period was a comatose blur under the influence of the dreaded flu bug!

All new years begin with hopes and dreams, and after the last year of sad loss and so many hospital visits that I’ve lost count, the hope of the sun shining on our lives is even greater.

 My paintings of algae and the inside of plants at Cynon Valley Museum, Aberdare, Wales

I’m delighted that four of my microscope paintings were selected to be in the Winter Exhibition 2019 in the Gallery at Cynon Valley Museum, Aberdare, South Wales