WHY DOES THE CAGED BIRD SING?

it has a song to sing

I have always loved colour and time with nature, being in the fresh air in the countryside makes me feel alive and renewed,  I love colour, music and dance. I enjoy seeing birds flying together like dancers in the sky, listening to their birdsong and observing the changes in the landscape.    

in search of my melody and lyric

As a child I loved playing outside and looking at the world around me.  When I couldn't play outside with friends exploring and creating adventures together, I spent my time colouring, drawing, ballet and piano playing.  There were few distractions and little opportunity for technology to interrupt my playful imagination.   I preferred the outdoors to inside,  I was sporty and loved nature, dance, the hills and winding roads.  I wanted to travel, I had my Mother's wanderlust and my father's interest understanding humans and our relationship to our planet. 

I loved colourful art and clothes even as a very young person, I was drawn to patterns and design and I loved the over the top floral 1970s swimming hats, the fashion for orange, yellow and brown floral wallpaper, curtains and dresses.  I liked gold designs and I treasured the gold embellished Sunday School children's bibles and illustrated cards with their swirling gold ink and brightly painted illustrations.  I admired the golden patterns which popped against deepest indigo in the Limoge pottery that my Mother started collecting during our family holidays in France.  

I ski-sloped from the top sets down and out through the gap of the hedge into the "not at all dizzy" heights of work at 15 years old.  Back then in my mid teens I fantasised about living by the sea in a hot country and spending my time as a painter.  It was a romantic fantasy a life through the lens of an American film I had probably seen, but I held on to this dream.

When Geese fly by Squalking

in search of newness

I returned to education at 18 years old two years later and every test I did turned to gold, it was like a miracle.  I studied hard and the saw a glint of light through the curtain grow in size.    Life was suddenly brighter and kinder and I high-jumped from a BTEC OND and A/O level to some bold applications Goldsmiths, Durham University etc... and I was accepted.  I was the wild card application which got their interest.  My free spirit was back and with it my smile  and creativity.   I was off to Durham University and the beginning of a colourful chapter. 

and finding new colours

English Language and Medieval Literature and my subsidiary subject was Anthropology, chosen as there wasn't an A level in either yet!  I was inspired by the visual world in my learning.  Elaborate golden illustrated chronicles of the Anglo Saxon early writings and the Tribal masks and artefacts that so influenced Cubism art fascinated my, the South American visual objects, and the imagery of ceremonies, totem poles and fertility statues both amused and fascinated me as did the symbolism and design in our South East Asian studies such as Tao and Shinto Gardens and Buddhism in general .   Anthropology covered all of the continents and it inspired me to broaden my vision and cultural awareness.   I painted cubist art and other abstract styles for pleasure, creating new art from these early narrative imaginings.   

TRAVELS COLLECTING COLOURS

and a song to sing

From University I worked in Japan and then Hungary. There were rice fields outside my ground floor flat window and on a clear day I could see the tip of Mount Fuji.   I enjoyed the gold, orange and reds of the temples and the textile designs.  The indigo and off white textiles the watercolour and ink art and calligraphy.  I took part in the Hanami celebrations, tea ceremonies and enjoyed Japanese gardens. I enjoyed watching the four seasons pass as the year concluded. 

I enjoyed the same the unspoilt landscape, the flowers and patterns and silk in textiles and the wonderful golden buddhas on two trips to Thailand which was a short flight away and travelled from Koi Samui up to Chang Rai.   

colours, lines, shapes steeped with feeling

In my time off that year I painted regularly for the first time, I read and my mind was full of ideas about the wonderful places around me and the stories in the world literature I was enjoying.  Word had travelled that I was painting and local people started taking an interest in my work.  At the end of the year I had a Solo exhibition in the neighbouring town Minami Koma, Yamanashi ken, Japan.   My work was loosely figurative some cubist painting oranges, browns, yellows and gold.  Some people some abstract landscape with cherry blossoms.

TIME  AND SPACE

happy moments in time and space creating my song

On my return to England I had another exhibition as part of my project presentation on Art and Poetry at the University of Cambridge. I dabbled again in my late 30s and exhibited locally and had a few features in magazines.

Now in my mid 50s my interest in painting stands at the centre of my work which is a luxury that I have waited for.  I begun sharing my paintings more widely a few years ago and I was surprised and delighted to be invited to take up advertorial and be one of approximately forty artists globally to feature in British Vogue's 2021 Summer Gallery.  They had seen my work on instagram.  It was fun to see my work tin British Vogue magazine and this fuelled my enthusiasm and confidence to exhibit more widely.

It was the perfect time to take it up for personal reasons too as I had been a full-time carer for a year and a part-time carer for a decade leading up to it.  Now was the time to immerse myself in making art and I was painting more and more. 

My home life, family life and work life are fulfilling and my creative work buzzes with vibrancy.  There have been times in my life my colours were missing more than once.  I wish I had known that those harder years that they were a stage and that better times would be round the corner.  And they were! 

BLACKBIRD SINGING IN THE DEAD OF NIGHT...

Take these broken wings and learn to fly

All your life

You were only waiting for this moment to arise..

Songwriters: John Lennon/ Paul McCartney

Blackbird lyrics: Copyright of Sony/ATV Music Publishing