I quite naturally painted since my childhood, as many children do! And I have always loved this form of expressing the world around me. I use mainly oils, watercolours, acrylics and charcoal/ pencils - occasionally collage, and other media. Over the past 20 years I have periodically attended art classes with 3 art teachers in England and some ad hoc classes. My first attempt at oil painting aged 16 was during a sweltering summer in India, guided by a lovely gentleman art teacher, Mr Kabli. I have painted off and on over the years work allowing. Now, as a Senior Citizen, I paint frequently - never a day without a line!
Many of us are beguiled by kingfishers – as is Michael, my husband. I painted this as a gift for his birthday. It was decades ago, and I don’t remember in which magazine I saw this beautiful photograph which inspired my painting. It was magical to see the splash a mingling of bird and water.
This a conceptual image and my way of ‘seeing’ things. The Presence is one of a series of paintings I am preparing, Here I have tried to express and honour the presence of God everywhere – even in deep space or beyond; the Master of creation, watches with joy. My reference images were adapted from the Hubble images NASA placed in the public domain, combined with artistic licence to tell my story. I found the beauty and grandeur of the scenes compelling.
Michael standing before a vista of the first glimpses along the Beas river to the distant peaks of the mountain valley in the Himalayas. It was a swelteringly hot summer’s day - and the snow melt waters of the Beas River tumbling behind him were deceptively icy. He laughed when I suggested he copy me and ‘take a dip’!
One of my early attempts of painting in acrylics, I simply loved this picture of the wheeling gannets and their elegant shapes, the deep blues of the swirling waves set off by the subtle tones of the sunlit rocky outcrop.
Lucy was a beautiful, a good-natured golden retriever who adored the countryside – and food; as they do. Northamptonshire’s rivers, stagnant pools, fields and woodlands, hares, deer, and flocks of geese were all graced by her special attention for more than a decade. Travelling with the family up and down the UK: she went wherever they went! When Lucy grew old, her back legs gave way, and she was in much pain. It was time to say a farewell, one of the hardest things we have ever done.
Rufus was a lively personality with the freedom of a farm, a farmhouse and surrounding fields and streams, where he had grown up from a puppy. Rufus remained the apple of his owners’ eyes until the end, when he became very ill and could not be saved. Hence, this sketch as a precious memory.
Love at first sight once again! The curving beauty of sculpted sand dunes embracing unyielding rocks in an untamed silent windy wilderness; a ‘Sahra’, desert (Arabic), that I would only ever see through Steinmetz’s (1999) lens… this time of Chad. Reminds me of another ‘special place’ in the Saudi desert to which Michael retreated to listen to the silence, and watch the landscape change from orange to purple to a canopy of star lit skies. My painting salutes Steinmetz’s talent – but mostly, a wonder of God’s creation and of all such places hidden from human sight. Perhaps to share that wonder with whomsoever might see their own thoughts reflected.
Always moved by this centuries-old custom of colourful prayer flags to “spread the good will and compassion into all” against the grandeur of the high Himalayas. This is a conceptual painting. It was inspired by our travels over several years to high mountain passes of over 13,000 feet and the unfolding vistas. Tied to strings and left to blow in the freezing winds, the flags are printed with prayers on traditional colours. Constantly added to by pilgrims, old strings are left to fade and lie in drifts. In Tibet, old prayer flags are replaced with new ones annually on the Tibetan New Year. Almost a metaphor for human lives, perhaps (?) both the fragility and resilience of humankind against an implacable backdrop
I caught sight of this picture in my 1999 issue of The National Geographic magazine featuring photographs by the famous George Steinmetz*. This scene of the Saharan Niger evoked in me the intense love of the desert that Michael, my husband, oft described passionately from his travels in Saudi Arabia. The image conjures up for me the beauty of flowing trains of life against the sandy desert vastness; the heat, silence, but for occasional human voices and the shuffle and grunts of camels - and the patience, courage and endurance of desert travellers.
Chris posed for our life-class one summer’s day, looking grave and dignified, as befits a retired police officer. So, we did our utmost to make him smile - his expression sits somewhere betwixt the two expressions! The challenge my art teacher, put to me (the late, well-known-loved John Paige) was to paint in three primary watercolours without mixing them!