Memories of my travels and the inspirations for many of my paintings
Time to write a blog - sitting here as you all are - waiting for this lockdown to end and trying to work out what happens next.
Disappointed that The Cambridge Autumn Festival was cancelled because of the lockdown and we have to wait a year for this to happen again. It is a difficult time for all of us.
However, I am planning a special project for the end of November and will write more about this as time goes on.
I thought I would write this time about trip to Europe in 1998.
I went with my daughter Anna and we flew to Paris where we met my youngest daughter Jenny, who flew in from London, where she was working.
We stayed in a boutique hotel in Montmartre for a few days then travelled by train to Avignon. From there, we picked up a car and proceeded to travel through the South of France, into Italy and eventually, I took off for Sarajevo and Anna to Disneyland. Jen had already returned to London.
Interestingly, it felt at that time that there were many tourists but nothing like there are now (well, were before the Covid event!)
That trip opened huge doors for me to paint and eventually all my European “odysseys “ were for my paintings.
Those paintings keep cropping up all over the world – Bali, England, New Zealand, Australia, USA and still I paint on using those memories from those places.
Portofino, St Margeurita, Sienna , Florence, the Cinque Terra, Positano, Rome, Venice, Tuscany, Lake Como - all of them visited at the many times I visited Italy. So sad to realise that they have had such a tough time with death, this beautiful country in such dire straits.
I have been painting since we have been in this lockup and have completed one I have named House Recital and am completing a large 1.5 metre square work of Penzance which will hang outside my front door.
I love Cornwall And would love to return but that is looking further and further away
I also have some glass cheese boards which I had made for the Autumn Festival Open Studios and some books left of my works if you want to order them
I just want to end with a quote from a Psychiatrist who I admire greatly, Edith Eger “Our powerful experiences aren’t a liability they are a gift, they give us perspective and meaning an opportunity to find out our unique purpose and strength”
