My mum was beautiful yesterday. I spent a couple of hours with her whilst my dad attended a hospital appointment. I looked into her eyes as we chatted and possibly, for the first time, what I saw there was love.
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I have worked with adults and young people with learning difficulties for around 8 years, a couple privately and then at City College Norwich, supporting students. It was work that I thoroughly enjoyed and was incredibly rewarding, although could be challenging at times and exhausting. Working with the Support Team at CCN, I finally found work where I felt I fitted in with my colleagues and those around me; I guess it takes a certain kind of person, a bit left of centre perhaps, to work in that environment. I loved it.
Although my personal work centres around the landscape, I am absolutely passionate about Life Drawing and Teaching it.
I had wanted to attend artschool everysince I was about 6 years old but wasn't permitted to when I was16 so I went into office work, which, at the time, I have to admit, I enjoyed. I gave up work after my children, James and Rebecca, were born in order to be a full time 'stay at home' mum and bring them up; a priviledge that unfortunately, not many parents are able to experience these days. When my daughter was about a year old I made an appointment to see the then course leader at Ipswich School of Art and Design, having decided that when she started school, I wanted be be able to start Art School, therefore fulfilling my life-long dream. I took along quite a large selection of paintings, drawings and photographs of work that I'd done on motorcycle tanks and asked whether this would be sufficient to get me a place in 3 years time when my daughter would start school. I was told that the best thing I could be advised to do, was to attend weekly life drawing sessions. So that is what I did. At that time, as many of us do, I felt that I was able to draw, and paint but attending these classes along with more experienced artists, I realised that I still had an awful lot to learn. After a year had passed, I felt that I was not improving and mentioned this to the tutor, explaining to him that I desperately wanted to be accepted onto a full time course. He promptly gave me an A1 sheet of newsprint and a piece of charcoal, told me to sit on the floor infront of the model and draw his portrait. Ka-BOOOM!!!! That was it, I was off and I never looked back! I successfully enroled on a 2 year General Art & Design course in 1994, when I was 32. I couldn't believe how lucky I was to finally be in the Ipswich School of Art & Design building on High Street, that I had cycled past so many times, longing to be able to one day, be amongst the students that studied there. As part of the course, we had a full day life drawing session every week, which I absolutely loved, and my skills continued to improve; during that time, I also continued to attend the evening class, my mum babysitting my two children as by then, I was divorced and a single parent. Life Drawing you see, is what got me into Art School, allowing me to fulfill my life-long dream which I feared would always remain that... a dream. After completing the two year G.A.D. course, I went on to achieve an upper 2nd class honours degree in Fine Art, Painting and an M.A. in the same at Norwich School of Art & Design, what is now called NUA . Art is my passion but learning to draw through attending Life Drawing Classes is what gave me opportunities that I've had, that to be honest, I really never would have dreamt of being possible. I firmly believe that if you can draw the human form, then you can draw anything. And YES, I do believe it is possible to learn and be taught, but you have to put the time in! Excellent couple of session this week at Life drawing. Some wonderful work achieved with our amazingly inspiring models.Here a selection of draawings from last evening.
For a couple of years now, I've mainly been concentrating on charcoal work as I felt a bit stuck with the oils I'd been doing and wasn't sure where to take them. I did a few experiments in oils last year but had no light bulb moments as a result. However, I've recently had one of those moments (phew) and have subsequently done a couple of experimental pieces using mixed media and am really pleased with the results. These are the mixed media and the oil experimental pieces and I'm now really excited about moving forward and getting stuck in with oils again... I miss the smell,the consistency, the mess and the challenge that painting in oils brings, it really is where my heart is!
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