Monday, March 5, 2012

Poppies I



I will not let the bad stuff control my life































The art of patience






















Recently I suffered a shoulder injury in my left arm; as I am left handed, this had a significant impact on my ability to be able to paint. At the same time, I was fighting a 'David and Goliath' battle regarding the occurrence of the injury, so it became more and more important for me to be able to paint as a way of managing my grief and ongoing pain from a pre-existing spinal injury. I eventually found that I could work lying down in bed with a pillow under my left shoulder, supporting my shoulder. However, this limited to some extent my choice of mediums, as I did not want to spill water or have oil paint spatters all over my bed. Similarly, whilst pastels are in some ways an easier medium to work with; in that you don't need to exert as much control there is the issue of dust from pastels ~ you really need to be working in a well ventilated area... difficult when you live in Western Australia and it is a summer of temperatures over the 40 degree mark celcius...

I therefore turned to graphite pencil, although this may seem an odd choice, given my lack of manual dexterity, I found that a) because you can press really lightly with pencil and then go over it repeatedly it does not require the same degree of control as a paintbrush does [this was my experience with a 5cm tear in the tendon in my shoulder at any rate]; and b] pencil gave me the option of working for five minutes at a time, then resting, then returning to it again and again and again. The following paintings were all achieved during this period and in this way; so if the style seems 'tight' this is the reason why.

I share this information reluctantly, I do so because I want others to realise that art is a form of healing and that it can occur in the midst of even the most restrictive or proscribed of circumstances.