Lockdown survival strategies

I’m sure many of us have found this second lockdown more of a struggle than the one earlier in the Spring and Summer, even though that one was much longer. The combination of lack of daylight and cold, murky weather, added to missing our families and friends (and for many, very real worries about their jobs and businesses) has made this feel a very uncertain time for so many. 

I’m a naturally cup-half-full person, but even though I have been keeping myself busy I could feel myself getting more tetchy and fed up as every day started feeling like a scene from the film ‘Groundhog Day’ (which, incidentally, is one of my favourite films, and I’m not going to even try to count how many times Phil and I have watched it)!

Then along came artists Jeremy Sanders and Jenny Aitken, who decided between them to arrange a ‘virtual paint out’ on Instagram, offering other artists who were also missing painting outside,  a different daily selection of photographic views from their respective homes in Cornwall and Derbyshire to paint from. Once painted, we put our paintings on our own Instagram pages with the hashtag #l2paintin

So each day this past week I have ‘travelled’ miles across the country via my studio, keeping company with a really lovely, supportive group of artists, each of us painting in our own unique style and admiring each other’s work at the end of the day. 

I’ve taken a screenshot of my Instagram page (@jackyradbone),  which shows a little montage of the  paintings I have done this week, some of which will be in my Oxfordshire Artweeks exhibition in May. I’ve  kept to my usual limited palette, and I’ve kept to the same amount of painting time I would, of necessity, have kept to if I’d been painting at the actual location - no more than one and a half hours. 

I have my own sketchbooks and reference photos I could have painted from, or of course I could have painted some more still life subjects or painted in the garden; but this feeling of community, of ‘meeting up’ to paint with other artists each day, has felt very light-hearted and upbeat, and has helped keep my ‘cup’ half full just when I needed it. Thanks so much Jerry and Jenny x

The Best Laid Plans . . . 

If everything had gone to perfect plan, today I would have been on my first day of recovery after surgery. Unfortunately, I failed my pre-op last week, so everything is delayed while I have more tests and now wait to go to another hospital for my op. It’s very frustrating as the timing was perfect - there is only four months until Artweeks 2020 and there will be so much to do to prepare for that. . . 

Still, as they say, life carries on happening while we are busy making plans, so although I felt fed up yesterday I decided to get on with things anyway, warping up my smaller loom and starting on another scarf, weaving a lap blanket on the bigger loom, and spinning some more lovely, soft Blue Faced Leicester wool to weave into cloth for a waistcoat.

Today I did a painting of the still-soggy fields of elephant grass down by the river. Painting takes so much concentration that it’s completely absorbing, so after two days of filling my time with doing all  the creative things I love, I feel so much better. What creative things lift your spirits? 

New Year resolutions

Over the decades I’ve lost track of how many New Year’s resolutions I have made and promptly broken, so this  year I’ve resolved not to make any at all.  New Year is always a good time to reflect on the past and to look ahead though, and I’ve been doing plenty of that in between all the busyness and enjoyment of the past couple of weeks.

The last six months haven’t been as productive as I had hoped; some of that was due to looking after a poorly dog (who is now thankfully full of beans again, and has just celebrated his 9th Birthday with lots of treats). A lot of the problem though, was that I lost confidence in myself and have had a very long dose of ‘artist’s block’.

Now that I’ve had a bit of a post-Christmas rest and had a bit of time to think things through I’m ready to face 2020 with fresh enthusiasm. I’ve entered a couple of art competitions, and got through the first stage of one of them, with another stage still to get through (not holding out much hope of the other, but will know one way or the other soon enough). I’m also going to try to manage my time much better, especially while the daylight is still so limited, so that I can get more painting time in. I’m going to concentrate more on painting the things I love this year, no more commissions or anything like that (which that I find super-stressful), but spend the time trying to improve instead.  I’m already looking forward to Artweeks in May too, that is always a lot of fun, and as usual will creep up on me before I know it!

There are so many blessings in life, and so much to look forward to - not least, the brighter, warmer days of Spring not too far off now, with all that it promises.  I wish you a very happy, peaceful, healthful 2020 🌸x

Artweeks 2019

I can’t believe that Artweeks is over for another year! Looking back it was such an amazing ten days....thank you to all the lovely visitors who came to see my work in my new studio and made the whole week a happy and memorable one.

I had been a little concerned about displaying all the paintings as my new ‘Little Cwtch’ studio is not as long as my old studio, but dear hubby and I had devised a way between us of displaying it all without it being cramped and I was so pleased with how it all finally looked - I even had space to display the weaving I have been doing over the past few months, which was a new thing for this year.

I met some wonderful people and had some wonderful conversations - always one of the highlights of Artweeks for me. I was also thankful to have some very good sales..... I had decided to donate the profits from paintings sold at this exhibition to the Lawrence Home Nursing Team after they had cared so wonderfully for a friend of ours last year, and am very happy to be able to send them £540 from the exhibition.

I couldn’t do any of this without my dear hubby. . .he works tirelessly in the lead up to Artweeks, helping me to do so much - even the garden was pristine and weed free (well, almost 😊)! During the week he was a smiling host and coffee-maker, and when it was all over he was the one who had all the heavy work to do, bringing all my ‘stuff’ back into the studio, taking down direction signs and posters etc and packing away paintings.

Now I’ve had a bit of a rest and it’s time to think about getting back out there and doing some more painting - here’s hoping we have another gorgeous summer! 🌸