It has been a while, the hours and days blend & bleed and time feels dormant sludging along in the slow and restorative winter. Little movement in the studio but walks along familiar paths armed with cats, hounds, starlings and a boy. I have made smaller watercolour works on paper reflective of my immediate Abruzzan vicinity and those daily ambles, the hills are carpeted with noble olive trees, collapsed vineyards, littered with the remnants of summer tomatoes or freshly turned earth seeded, grasses and grains below germinating. Journeying - be it proximal is inherently freeing, that desire to move, to be curious, to be watchful, an opportunity to reflect, declutter, loosen, these pandemic days encourage making conscious steps everyday to harbour consistent change in our inner landscape.
“A single footstep will not make a path on the earth, so a single thought will not make a pathway in the mind. To make a deep physical path, we walk again and again. To make a deep mental path, we must think over and over the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives.” Henry David Theroux
I am currently drawing the almond blossom, there is something soothing about the annual assurance of the cycle of blooms, the first is always the almond, inevitably it snows as it flowers. The trees near the terrace have a haunting, looming presence, the bees drone is encouraging and the skies backdrop varies from bright cerulean, to graphite, platinum to payne’s grey, or they stand proud, ghostly against the dark eerie evening.
Working still in intermittent bursts, initial sketches are later adapted in an instinctive, immediate process., much of the aesthetic decision making is done in the moment - intuitively working. Bold, flat, graphic colour fields sit alongside swift, gestural marks contrasting with sharp punchy lines. Fluidity against stillness, loose over gusto, finding the balance in composition and palette, there is so much satisfaction in a sweeping chalk mark, or a play on finding the humming, vibrating energy. The next works will be a few more abstracted florals and landscapes, experimenting still with balance and techniques and drawing on the surrounding natural landscape.
I would like to collaborate or find way to introduce into my work interests in inspiring movements that I see in the world, sometimes home can be isolating and I feel need for connection and involvement, Covid has exacerbated inequalities, gender inequality consistently shows that women have shouldered the greatest burden, I see conversations about climate feminism and how changing the cultural, societal, political landscape to empower girls and women can have a major positive shift in climate change, 80% of peoples displaced in climate change are women, whilst they are agents of change women are mostly excluded from decision making, I would like to find a way to incorporate tenderness, cooperation, sovereignty into my paintings. Or does everything that you learn and unlearn, grasp and inhabit directly leak into the work. There are so many conversations to ne had, so much listening to do.
“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom” ViKtor Frankl
Over the next few months - I am pleased to have a painting selected as part of the VAA International Online Exhibition which will take place from 12th April - 30th June 2021 #VAAOPEN #visualartistsassociation and I am planning to organise a solo show this summer in Vasto, which I decided to hold off on last year. I also have pieces available as part of the generous & novel artists support pledge, a movement that has single handedly changed the entire creative landscape during the pandemic and established a new micro economy within the art market. “You give generously, you receive gratefully and you give back.” #artistsupportpledge
