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
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.
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
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
My table laid out with paintings, prints, cards and hearts at Nelson Craft MarketWhile 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:-
Painting of the Window and Ceiling Arches of Pershore Abbey, Worcs.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.
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