Forgotten Tree

I've called this piece Forgotten Tree because there are so many of these 'forgotten' trees in parks across the country.  I sit in the park after collecting my girls from school and take in the surroundings.  Generally they are familiar and rather mundane.  The park looks the same and rather forgotten.  It could do with an overhaul.  The trees capture my imagination especially in the winter.  Trees make interesting patterns in the winter.  How many times do people sit and take in their surroundings and the trees?  Everyone at the park seem to be engrossed in each other's conversations, the kids play on the park equipment ignoring everything except each other.  I sit away from them all and take it in and think.  Maybe forgotten applies to aspects in my life.  I certainly was forgotten in previous workplaces.  Often the most qualified person, I would be overlooked for a promotion in favour of someone more loud mouthed and noticed.  I've left that behind and find life more peaceful and happy.  

Forgotten Tree, A3 carbon and colour pencils

Reality, Southsea Common, June 1977

If this picture seems ominous or threatening to you then I've achieved what I set out to do.  Southsea Common was near where I lived in Portsmouth.  I remember living on the South Coast of England, the walks, days out in Brighton and breathing the fresh air.  My mum finished her degree in June 1977.  During the lead up to June I was told about our impending move to Manchester, or more specifically Longsight in Manchester.  Longsight was nothing like Portsmouth.  Before I came up to Manchester I always had the stereotypical view of the North of England as grim, rather like the opening credits that were shown on the soap opera Coronation Street.  Where we ended up living in Longsight actually turned out just as bad as I feared.  It was grim, back alleys, smogs so thick that the buses stopped running because they couldn't see where they were going and standing outside made your feet disappear.

I also had a sense of wonder at what was actually real.  I believed that I was the only real person in the world while I lived in Portsmouth.  Everything else was fake/a robot/not alive.  Whether this sense of alone in the world was a manifestation of autism I don't know.  Reality on Southsea Common was me and an unwelcome move up to the North of England.  Sometimes reality is not what we want or expect.

Reality, Southsea Common, June 1977, oil painting on board 120x100cm

Think Differently Exhibition

Three of my recent artworks, Sounion, Siesta in Epirus and Alone are currently being exhibited at Art With A Heart in Altrincham as part of the ArtismUK art group which supports autistic artists.  Further exhibitions will be following over the next few months which will feature some of the other recent work that I have produced.  So far the response has been positive!

Me and my work (from left to right), Sounion, Siesta in Epirus and Alone.



Detail of Siesta in Epirus and Alone.

Contemplation, August 2000

This piece reflects on a difficult stage in my life.  I graduated in June 2000 from my BA hons degree in Classical Studies.  That should have meant a summer of relaxation after the stress of final exams and a 12,000 word dissertation.  I had some temporary work set up that should have lasted the summer, however the work dried up after only 4 weeks.  Instead of parties, nights out and fun it was missed rent payments and food donations off family to see us through to the next academic year.  My boyfriend and me were completely broke.  For entertainment we went for all day walks and late into the night walks.  I've never eaten so many lentils, but lentils aren't a student food for nothing.  Other cash streams that I had relied on also didn't materialise.

Contemplation, August 2000, oil on board 100x120cm

What kept me going through this financial catastrophe was knowing that from late September I would start my MA studies.  I had applied for a bursary for this qualification as there was no student loan funding for post graduate studies.  This application was rejected.  I applied to my bank for a career development loan.  I phoned them to check on my application.  I was unbelievably relieved to hear that my application was successful.  A letter came a few days later rejecting my loan application.  I was stunned.  No job, no money and an MA to pay for! 

It got worse.  The flat we had lived in since May 1995 had become almost uninhabitable due to lack of repairs by our morally corrupt and stingy landlord.  We finally complained about this to the council who inspected it.  They agreed that the state of the property was appalling and instructed the landlord to make specific repairs.  The reward to us was a two month eviction notice period.  No, money, MA to pay for and soon to be homeless. 

There was lots of thinking to be done regarding this dire situation.  If I didn't find funding for the MA I didn't know what else I was going to do.  There was no plan B, there was only plan A, an MA for the following year.  This why I call this piece 'Comtemplation, August 2000'.  I had to think my way out of this predicament and I did this successfully.  Within a week I had secured a loan from another bank, within three weeks I had set up part time work at the university where I was studying, and within four weeks we had put a deposit down on a lovely house in the same area we were living.  From the ashes rises the phoenix.  Whenever life seems to be a never ending series of bad news, never lose hope and always keep trying is the most valuable lesson learned from this difficult time.

 

Sounion

This drawing continues a theme that I have been following for a few months based on my visits to the temple of Poseidon at Sounio.  In earlier posts I mention that my first visit to this temple was in 1999 as a student on the British School at Athens undergraduate course, Topography and Archaeology of Ancient Greece.  This very ruined temple captured my imagination then and upon returning in August 2014 it did not let me down.  The situation of the temple is the tip of Southern Attica about 79 km from Athens.  It was dedicated to the god Poseidon (king of the sea) in the mid 5th century BC and later abandoned as Christianity spread throughout the Mediterranean.

Many people come here to see the sun set over the horizon as the Aegean sea spreads out from the cliff top where the temple stands.  I've yet to see the sunset.  Another excuse to visit in the hopefully not too distant future.  I think I will be creating a lot more work based on this temple!

Sounion, A1 drawing and gouche (2015)

At Bet's, June 1986

 

 Bet was my gran (8th Feb1929-16th March 1994).  I spent at least half my childhood at Bet's house. I'm not sure that it was planned that way.  At first I only visited when we (my mum and me) came up to Sale (just outside Manchester) from where we lived which was sometimes Portsmouth and at other times London.  We finally moved to Longsight, Manchester in 1977 and the following year Bet got very ill with Crohn's disease.  There was a point where it was believed she wouldn't live for much longer however she did pull through although it took her a year to get out of hospital and another year to get back to work.  During this time we visited her several times a week at the hospital and when she finally got back home, we spent every weekend and holiday there.  My mum stopped doing the whole weekend visits, just coming on a Sunday.  I continued with the weekend and holiday visits and even started to stay two nights a week for a while because my mum started night school.  I ended up with my own bedroom and it was basically a second (or you could say main) home. 

At Bet's, June 1986, Oil painting on board 122cmx100cm

This painting shows a weekend moment in June 1986.  On sunny, warm days we would often have the French window open which I loved because it was like bringing the garden into the house.  There weren't really many other days that year that were warm enough to do that with summer 1986 turning out to be particularly wet and cold.



Τολό

Τολό or in English letters Tolo is a small seaside town in the south western Peloponnese of Greece.  The first time I went to this place was 1999 while studying with the British School at Athens.  It is near the oldest intact bridge in the world (c.1300BC) and still used by the locals.  We visited the usual places nearby, Mycenae and Epidauros and later went out for a meal in Tolo where our hotel was.  I finished eating long before anyone else and went straight back to the hotel swimming pool.  Lovely experience having a pool all to yourself at night, floating face up looking at the stars.  I returned to Tolo in August 2014 with my family.  My girls loved the relaxed Greek atmosphere and the tavernas that sit right next to the sea. 

This painting captures a moment where my oldest daughter is looking out at sea.  She is happiest when she is swimming in the and snorkelling, which she will do all day without a break.  Here is a rare moment when she was not in the sea albeit briefly.



τολό, oil painting on board, 122cm x 100cm

Preliminary drawing, A3