It’s a curious thing when you’ve been away from painting for so long, and then restart. You wonder, firstly, whether you can still paint… (I’m not kidding). You wonder if it’s going to be like riding a bicycle – once learnt, always remembered, or whether your skills have gone AWOL… permanently.
It may not have all the bells and whistles, nor even some basic amenities (like a sink), but it’s my studio.
Recently, I participated in a four week online e-course taught by Pauline Agnew called Pathways to Abstraction. I took it, not because I wanted to learn abstraction per se (having already worked abstractly for some years), but to kick-start me back into my painting.
Some years ago – 14 to be exact, I was shown a replay of an episode from the British reality TV show ‘Faking it’.
Several months back, I was contacted by the Italian curator of the Imago Mundi Benetton World Art Project, and asked to contribute a painting for their New Zealand collection.
Do you know what it feels like to slowly and painfully lose your mojo? To stand helplessly by as your all consuming passion slips away from your grasp?
