In 2019, I started on a new series of paintings, these arose out of some of my many visits to Stately Homes in and around Derbyshire these often have Formal Topiary gardens, some of these clipped hedges suggest many things. Early in 2020 , I started on a parallel set of work based on friends and family eating together.
Hopton Hall Folly
In a Formal Garden
Lavender Beds
I have not felt inclined to work in my studio during Lockdown. What I have been doing is having a dialogue about how an idea for a work of Art develops. Halfway through the first lockdown , an ex -student contacted me to say that she would value a chat. In the 35 intervening years, she had gained a BA Hons & an MA from the RCA. I had retired & changed my practice from textiles to paint. We spent the next several weeks exchanging emails & telephone conversations about the nature of practice. She told me that she had kept me as a Touchstone for all those intervening years, the discussions we had brought us to equality, we are no longer Student / Teacher, now we are Artist/ Artist, our conversations gave us the chance to examine the development of an idea, it’s history, it’s triggers, it’s place, it’s time, it’s voice and it’s measure. Lockdown has provided for me the opportunity to reflect.
Supper In The Garden
