Rosemarie O'Leary
Fine Art
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.
While I’m reluctant to start booking at fairs again, I decided I would attend and support this one in my home village for two reasons:
1. It is the first to establish local small businesses, and support means it has a better chance of being successful all round in the future, and
2. It is local, and a great way to get to know more local people and vice versa, they get to know me and what I do.
As it has been quite a few years since I took part in a market, there was quite a bit of preparation involved in getting ready, from making sure I had plenty of business cards to hand out, to having a good selection of smaller works for display. My good sturdy print rack came in handy for flicking through art prints because the table was not huge, but I think I managed to display everything well enough which included:-
The painting I decided to submit, “The Window” just seemed to jump out to be put forward because of the difficult times we have had this year, losing my lovely Mum In Law. I painted this a few years back based on the internal architecture of Pershore Abbey near my parents’ home. I loved the arches and the way the light was falling between the pillars and coming through the window, so accentuated them to portray my own sense of what spirituality is, and the trust that through a “window” we carry on into a next life.
I’m really enjoying the physical aspect of making my own clay hearts. It gives me the freedom to choose my own shapes and sizes, and I can say that I’ve made them literally from start to finish. I’m using air dry clay and it has been a challenge to roll the clay smooth enough to make a good painting surface for detail work. I also wanted the hearts to be delicate and thin rather than thick and chunky, which posed a challenge to stop them curling at the edges while they were drying, so they were turned over regularly and kept from drying too quickly. When they are dry, even though they are thin, they are surprisingly tough.
Where does the time go when life just takes over? January disappeared into the ether while I lay comatose under the duvet suffering from flu. February threw curve balls left, right and centre.
Rushed hospital visits, tests and scans, not all mine, but family too. It really wakes you up from dreamily going through life. There is a saying that when life throws lemons at you, make lemonade. But sometimes, making lemonade is extremely difficult. Playing ball is difficult too!
The last several months of 2018 have been challenging. My health confined me, and for a while it was comforting to rest up and recuperate. It’s difficult, well almost impossible to be inspired when I’m feeling ill and in pain. But I am beginning to feel more able now, and no longer wish to be in confinement. It is time to throw back the curtains and once again say “Hello World!”
Gardening Is Like Painting, The Spade Is My Brush, The Flowers Are My Paint and The Ground Is My Canvas
They say gardening is great for mental health, and it definitely is. It has helped me to pick myself up, dust myself off and re-evaluate what is important in life.
Art, painting wise, has been a bit of a barren few months where I seem to have lost my way, maybe because I found myself in a situation that was unsustainable. The decision to put my brush down for a few months has actually helped me to re-evaluate not only what is important in my life, but also the direction I wish to go, and how I measure things in the future. Sometimes lessons get learnt the hard way, and from people you least expect.