Playing catch-up

Hi, I feel like a stranger on my own blog! So much has happened since my last post, but unfortunately very little of it has involved active production of artworks.

One reason for this is that my momentum came to a grinding halt when my partner in the ConneXion 2 project (see earlier posts for details), for which I had been madly preparing for the past 18 months or so, suddenly reneged on the project, pulling out with no warning once all the paintings were done and the book almost ready to be published. This was a huge blow, and it took me a while to bounce back from it.

It happened on the eve of my visit to the kids and grandchildren in Turkey and Bulgaria, so i used that time to reassess my way forward. I have had growing problems with my knees, particularly the right one, and had been told after a second arthroscopy in January that it was no longer possible to avoid a full knee replacement. However, it was explained that it is a very big op with a long recovery time, and if I went ahead it would mean no overseas travel for several months. Because of the New York exhibition scheduled for ConneXion2 in October, and the trip to see the kids in April, the surgeon was not willing to do it this year.

I had been advised by a leading artist and good friend that most of the works were good enough to stand alone, without the poems, and for a short while considered continuing with the New York show anyway. But the knee became more and more of an issue, and so I decided to put NYC on the back burner for now, and book my surgery for June, once back from Bulgaria.

Prior to all this, I had done a small work specifically for the "Same Size, Same Price, No Signature exhibition at artEC Gallery in February.

sold 250x350 oil on canvas
Children of the shadows 5

A wonderful joyful photo, posted on facebook, of my oldest granddaughter running joyously down the hillside with her dog, just begged to be painted. I did 2 versions, one of which I have kept and one which was sent as a gift to the kids in Bulgaria.

it was an interesting exercise doing them simultaneoulsy and yet seeing the different atmosphere emerge in each, partly influenced by the different canvases I used.

I also signed up for a year long workshop with Greg Kerr, which consists of 4 x 4day modules spread out over the year, with homework in between. I'll do a post about that and show you some of the images produced so far soon.

In the gap between getting back and going for surgery, I managed 2 large paintings, unfortunately one was sold before I even had a chance to photograph it. This is the other, which has been on Exhibition at the newly refurbished Athenaeum in Port Elizabeth, in a wonderful exhibition of 200 leading Eastern Cape Artists, which coincides with the publication of a book called Art &Artists of the Eastern Cape.

Africa Weeps for her children 8  oil on canvas 1500x1000mm

Since the op I have been very limited and unable to handle studio time and big work, so have kept my hand in doing a couple of tiny canvases at the dining room table, and getting back to something I haven't done in ages, old buildings.

Good Shepherd Church, Grahamstown 200x200

street in Richmond Hill 200x200

Elaine Hopewell Gallery 200x200

do you value our lives? 250x300

I must admit, even in this "Take everything slowly" recuperation phase, I find uploading pics on blogger maddeningly slow! So there we have it for now. I am pretty up to speed with loading pix of my artwork on facebook, so if i tend to let this lapse because it takes so long to do a post, you can see them there.