Picking Up the Threads

It's been a long time, and much has happened in the last couple of years.  After losing my mother, one of our dogs got cancer and was very sick, and we lost him, and then my brother was taken into hospital, where he stayed for some months until finally passing away two years almost to the day after our mum.  It was difficult as he lived 300 miles away from us.  Then there was all the hassle with selling his house and the legal stuff, which unnecessary complications made more traumatic.  I wasn't very creative during this period, and didn't have the heart to write on the blog.  It's very hard to be imaginative when you are heartsick, and levels of concentration and motivation are sorely diminished.

Still, one picks oneself up, as we all have too, and try to get back into the stream of life.  I was honoured to be asked to be one of the three judges of the annual UKCPS Open Exhibition last year, a humbling and responsible task.  There were some amazing paintings, and it's so heartening to see how far coloured pencil art has progressed in the few years the Society has been running.



















http://www.amazon.co.uk/Artist-Journal-Workshop-Cathy-Johnson/dp/1440308683/ref=sr_1_1_bnp_1_pap?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1391510442&sr=1-1&keywords=cathy+johnson

I got Cathy Johnson's book 'The Artists Journal Workshop' .  This is a super book, which encouraged me start drawing again as I wasn't able to manage to finish large paintings.  I found  that making small pictures, with no pressure to exhibit, and recording events and observations, was just the thing to gradually get me going again.  I really recommend this if you are stuck with that awful 'artist's block'.  I've been keeping little sketchbooks about our travels in our motorhome, and also illustrating poetry. I'll put some pics up soon.

So, I have started painting again, and will begin to upload some pics of my work.  I shall be taking part in Angus Open Studios this May after a gap of two years http://www.angusopenstudios.com.  Spring is coming and the old mojo is stirring again!