The Pleasures of Exploring My Own Small Orbit - Nudged Back Into Creating By An Opportunity/Deadline
I have been in a very long dry period when it comes to painting. About 2 years, in fact. After I shut my studio doors in anticipation of the building being condemned and torn down (so far it has only been condemned and set on fire) I packed up the entire contents of said studio and brought them home, stuffing paintings and materials into various closets, nooks and crannies. After my kid left home I co-opted her old bedroom as a studio of sorts, but most days I felt too melancholy being in there to have any creative urge sparked. I was on empty.
Then about half a year into our Covid reality something
sparked a tiny little creative flame. An article on mending techniques that I
shared online resulted in a friend mentioning a slow stitching group on
social media. I joined it and wholeheartedly embraced slow stitching
for the next 6 months or so, finding it both mindful and blissfully soothing.
(See my previous post on it.) I could feel the creative juices stirring
again, (finally) and wondered if the time I would pick up my paint
brushes again was near. It wasn't, and more time went by (more stitching projects, lots of
reading, lots of walks, a bit of napping) until on one of my weekly
trips to my local library I was invited to have a show there for the
months of December and January. This was in October.
Of course I said yes. Keep in mind that I had no new work. Nada. Luckily I had a stack of paintings that hadn't sold and that I was heartily sick of looking at. Nothing better than a do-over! (I have a couple of previous posts on do-overs - these were more like complete transformations, not much of the original works remain except some nice brushstrokes or colours that were useful as underpaintings.)
I painted these 5 pieces in about 6 weeks. They are a chronicling, much like my slow stitch stories, of my life during the past nearly 2 years, and celebrate, as I state in my show description: 'the pleasures to be taken in exploring our own small orbits - our neighbourhoods, our back yards, our homes.'
The show will be on throughout the months of December 2021 and January 2022 at the Mill Bay (South Cowichan) Public Library at 310 - 2720 Mill Bay Road in Mill Bay. Hours are:
Monday and Tuesday 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
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