Thursday, January 13, 2011

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



3 comments:

  1. You have a wonderful gift, and I'm so glad you are getting back into something you love.
    I wish I could paint, I admire your art!

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  2. Good post. I had a similar experience, so I can vouch that life does, indeed, turn in circles.

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  3. You should definitely keep that New Years resolution! You do lovely paintings, so it's wonderful that your path has led you round to rediscovering it :-)

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