Yesterday, I managed to twist my back and am currently sitting on an ice pack while I write this.
It reminds me that a year ago I did exactly the same thing after my first art fair as a painter. A year before that I was working 5 days a week and squeezing in art time between family life and household chores at the weekend, grabbing a bit of space on my kitchen table.
Last April I was feeling good – I’d got down to 4 days a week, still had the kitchen table and cooker hob for larger canvases and had just shown my work at The RWS Contemporary Watercolour Society at Bankside Gallery for the second year running. I’d had a successful show at Roy’s Art Fair at The Bargehouse, Bankside and was generally feeling good. Then my back went – maybe just to give me a bit of a reality check there!
Somehow I managed to travel up to Edinburgh with my daughter to see an old friend and enjoy the delights of an Airbnb in Leith. Sitting was painful, as it is at this moment, so I slowly walked everywhere.
After visiting a charming gallery in Portobello, The Velvet Easel, I decided that sitting in a cab was just too uncomfortable but I really wanted to visit the & Gallery in Edinburgh. So I walked at a slow pace for over 2 hours through the outskirts of Edinburgh until I made it there. This gallery felt special to me – it showcases all my favourite artists, including Karine Leger, Ele Pack, David Mankin, to name a few. Was it worth it? You bet!
I was able to see JFK Turner’s wonderful pieces and even spotted a recent delivery of unrolled and unstretched paintings on canvas by the Canadian artist, Karine Leger.
Since then, I’ve gone down to a 3 day working week, have my own studio in the garden and seeing my work progress. I’ve had paintings accepted at The RWS Contemporary Watercolour Competition again and at The RI 208th Watercolour Exhibition at the Mall Galleries.
In my art career these are the Big Rocks. You probably know this already -this comes from the analogy of filling a jar with rocks and sand. The rocks are your important stuff, whatever that may be and the sand is the small stuff. If you fill the jar with the sand first, you don’t leave much room for the rocks ( big stuff) so put the rocks in first and make the sand fit in around it.
In an artist membership group I belong to, we are encouraged to think of the Bigger Stuff; the dreams with no holds barred, where anything is possible, however unrealistic. My bigger stuff is showing my work in that beautiful gallery one day where someone is happy to hobble in pain for hours just to appreciate the work ( okay, maybe I’m pushing that one!)
In the meantime, I’m perfectly happy to keep painting and pushing my limits a little bit and in this time of quarantine I’m very fortunate to be able to do that. I just need to keep the ice pack handy.
(Image is a painting on canvas, With Fearne By The Rocks, after a very special day touring the coast of East Lothian with my childhood friend, Holly and her daughter - see my SHOP page for further details)
http://www.andgallery.co.uk
http://www.elepackpaintings.com
http://www.jfkturner.com
https://karineleger.ca
https://velveteasel.co.uk
With Fearne By The Rocks
Acrylic on canvas
51cm x 51cm
£750