Lockdown 2020 - part 1

My last post was 6 months ago. It's been a very strange year and, now in September, it doesn't seem to be getting any less strange as time goes on. After the initial shock of lockdown had warn off, life went on in a very new way - working from home and communicating by Zoom and Teams, only going out for exercise and essentials. Thank goodness for modern technology.

For the first few weeks of lockdown the weather was glorious and the garden in all its spring glory kept me going (when I wasn't working!). It has gone from strength to strength all year and is only just beginning to fade however this blog isn't about the garden - I may follow up with another one later.

I said modern technology was a blessing (mostly) and it was a chance encounter on facebook that lead me to try something new. I'm a member of several facebook groups about the Lake District and on one of these I spotted some lovely paintings of Wasdale Head - I can't resist pictures of Wasdale so I started chatting with the artist, a lovely lady called Emma Hunt who lives in West Cumbria and uses art as pain therapy. The paintings were done in pastel and we got talking about my Grandparents having been artists and how I wished I could draw. She persuaded me to join one of her online art classes using my Grandpa's pastels which had been unused since he died in 1976. It must have been meant to be because when I went in the loft looking for them, they were right in front of me!! Below is my first attempt from following one of Emma's lessons. Good enough for a first attempt to encourage me to continue.

I followed some of Emma's workshop videos of Wasdale Head and Sycamore Gap on Hadrian's Wall then decided to branch out on my own. The silhouette of the man with his dogs on the beach is David Moseley and his dogs Alice and Jeffrey. It was harder than it looked but I was pleased with the end result. The Lone Walker at sunset is another of David's photos. Two attempts at this one as the first one was too dark - something learned, the image on the computer screen was darker than the original. Finally another workshop piece - practice for Birker Moor at a later date.

My son and daughter-in-law live in the US and were feeling very isolated from family and friends in the UK as they had never envisaged a time they couldn't jump on a plane and come home for a visit so I decided to try and do something special for them. When I visited them last year Alexander and I did a road trip to the Blue Ridge Mountains. One of the photos I took caught my imagination and brought back some memories of a lovely trip so I decided to try to recreate it for them.

At this time, I was still using my Grandpa's pastels plus some new student grade pastels which actually turned out to be not as good, however A+C were so pleased with the picture Alexander treated me to some artist grade pastels for my birthday (early!). Before they arrived, I persevered with my existing pastels. The results are lacking in the vibrant colours of the better quality pastels however, as drawing has always been something I have been afraid of, to actually  create a recognisable image was quite an achievement.

End of chapter 1 - to be continued ....