Painting

2010 was a difficult year for me, nothing tragic or awful just difficult,

but it ended unsurprisingly with me being ill, bad cold/flu followed by labyrinthitis. I was stuck at home not allowed to drive and couldn't do

much without feeling sick and spaced out.

Anyway there I was, checking out the folksy forum, and saw a chat by

Brenda ( teabreaks) about ACEOs.and as I had nothing else to do I

decided to have a go. I have blogged about my venture into them before

so I wont repeat myself. But something strange happened.

I rediscovered painting. I know that sounds all arty farty but I really

did.

When I was young I was quite ill, I missed a lot of school and spent

a lot of time on my own. So I used to draw and paint to pass the time

and Iloved it, it was my saving grace. I wanted to go to Art school but my

mothers death, bad school grades and meeting my future

husband all led me down a different path.

I don't regret that one bit especially as in my late 30's I went to a mother

and child art class with my daughter at school.The tutor was amazing

and set me up to go to the local college and I ended up doing an Art

foundation course and then on do a fine Art degree at UWE,

which I got just as I turned 40. Not bad for a high school drop out.

It was amazing, but as with a lot of fine art classes you explore your

own experiences to produce your art.Without going into too many details,

this led to me going down a very feminist route. For any of you have

studied Feminist Art history ( not many of you no doubt) then you will

know it rejects ( or at least did ) painting. This is a lots of theory about

painting being a male dominated as in 'Old Masters' process. Just as I was finishing

my degree, I discovered a fantastic artist called Jenny Saville a feminist

artist that painted and I wanted to start exploring

the medium again, but it was to late.

( you can read my dissertation about her here )

So years of just dabbling now and again and then taking up making

tiaras and then jewellery making, I have been brought full circle and

have rediscovered my first love. What a funny

world it is!!

I wasn't going to make a News years resolution this year but I think

if I have one now it is tocontinue to paint and to embrace my love of it x