Artist Without Portfolio

And in Other News…
Hello poor neglected, but not quite forsaken, blog. Coming to the end of the year makes me reflective two posts-that is all I have been able to manage in months, it would be shameful if it had not been such a momentous year. But big things need deep processing before they become words. I seem to have got over myself, angst-wise and have accepted and to some extent my previously hybrid state of artist/writer, and not obsessing over categories has brought such a sense of freedom. For example, writing a review for the exhibition Stitched Time, was a joy, in part because I have stepped outside a certain type of art-making. This outsider position enables me to see things more clearly. So much so that my next blog will be tackling such emotive subjects as, Tracy Emin, and the recent suggestion of possible inauthenticity in her work, My Bed. This was in an article posted on Facebook, where an interesting and lively debate followed. I realised during the discussion that I had quite strong feelings and felt the need to explore their origins. More of all this in the NEW blog…
The past year has also been a time of revisiting and evaluating and either moving on or reconnecting with old themes like teaching, a brief but intense flirtation, probably borne of a need to feel useful. Demonstrating, live full figure portraits in watercolour, after an abstinence of nine years, I was welcomed back to the Broadstairs and St. Peter’s Art Group. I was rather nervous and bribed long suffering members of my family to be models, so that I could practise beforehand. But on the night was relieved and surprised, it really is like riding a bike, in the sense that you don’t forget, all the accumulated knowledge, starts to flood back once you get going-I loved it and hope to do more.
And now to round off this pathetically, undernourished blog, I have added yet more drawings of the amazing band: Rudy Warman and The Heavy Weather, whose music inspires and moves me and whom I can’t seem to watch without a pencil in my hand. You can hear them for yourselves through the link at the bottom of page.
See you next year.
https://rudywarman.bandcamp.com/album/vol-3
https://www.a-n.co.uk/reviews/stitched-time