At the heart of things I’m an artist not a writer but I do feel I need to share occasionally what is on my mind, be it a process, a thought, an idea or a story, so here goes!
I started my painting journey when I was only about 7 or 8 I guess. I used to copy comics and then draw pictures I really liked from things around me. My Dad still had one of my drawings and had it hanging in his room right up till the day died. They weren’t great by any means, they were just copies but I loved drawing.
I took art in school and loved the subject but I still hadn’t found my voice really and was just drawing and copying what I liked. Art took a back seat once I left school as I was now married and a couple of years later having children, moving around the country as an Army wife.
My life hasn’t been an easy dawdle through, a child of divorced parents, a malignant melanoma removed at the age of 13 scaring my face from chin to ear, premature babies, a hearing impaired child, a motorbike accident that resulted in the loss of my husbands leg….I could go on but I wont. With all these trials, life lessons, what ever you want to call them, I know I am a stronger person and at 51 I picked up the brushes again and restarted my journey, now with a wealth of life experience to help me find that voice I had kept quiet for so long.
Finding my Voice
I started back painting trees and hearts mostly and I believe that is because those symbols truly spoke to me. Trees make me think of wisdom and grandeur and are just majestic but they are tough, withstand storms, strong and push on through regardless of the obstacles.
Hearts speak
of love and love can be so much from loving life, loving someone or loving yourself for who you are. Love has a huge message. But the heart is also a symbol of honesty, thus “true” love. I place great value on honesty within my life and have based my relationship of 38 years with my husband, on this and it’s how we brought our children up, who are now 2 wonderful, honest, caring, sharing adults that make me very proud of the people they have become.
The relationships I had with my parents and still have with my sister, were also very honest. With all these honest heart felt relationships, I have had a life full of love so no wonder I am seeing this theme shine through stronger now as I have developed my skills and my mindset. It is my true voice coming though, it’s what is inside me wanting to be heard, it’s what I really want to paint. A piece of art that is authentic, with meaning and honesty – art from my heart (excuse the pun!!)
In an episode of Doctor Who the Doctor asks an art curator “Between you and me, in a hundred words, where do you think Van Gogh rates in the history of art?”
He replied “Well… um… big question, but, to me Van Gogh is the finest painter of them all. Certainly the most popular, great painter of all time. The most beloved, his command of colour most magnificent. He transformed the pain of his tormented life into ecstatic beauty. Pain is easy to portray, but to use your passion and pain to portray the ecstasy and joy and magnificence of our world, no one had ever done it before. Perhaps no one ever will again. To my mind, that strange, wild man who roamed the fields of Provence was not only the world’s greatest artist, but also one of the greatest men who ever lived.”
I am no Van Gogh, I’m not even close but that explanation of what he did with his art has always been my driver of what I should paint. I’d like it to have meaning, to teach a lesson or provide someone who may need “just that message”. To prompt a thought to ponder, evoke an emotion or spark an action that leads them down a path to a brighter, happier life full of love.
