and the Seasons they go round and round

Today was the PV of the Society of Women Artists 163rd Annual exhibition. I was lucky that I had two pieces selected this year. Having had work selected for the past four years, I am getting to know members and people who also regularly get work selected.  The hang was beautiful and even at 10:20, when we arrived, it was buzzing. Meeting Ginny Page, who comes all the way from Denmark for the exhibition and is an SWA member, is always fun.  Her work is stunning and it was fun to talk painting.

My two are on the bottom.

This year there were four members of Colchester Art Society who had work selected and those of us who were able to attend the PV met.   Sylvia Paul, Debbie Ayles and I took a photo in front of the wall where my work is showing. I am in the main room again!

Colchester Art Society members

Some of you may know that this spring has been a particularly busy spring.  The Guyver family had a wedding and who knew how wonderfully disruptive that could be.  I pretty much put aside my paints from mid-April to mid-June. The poignant address spoken by the president about the mission of the SWA and how determined women have had to be to get their work seen felt relatable, particularly following on from such a long time off and the tug of being a mother and a wife.

Even though anyone who knows me and has witnessed my dogged determination and the schedule I normally keep would say I never slouch, it’s still  easy to feel that I should and I could be painting more. I also miss not painting so being out of my studio is difficult.

OPen Studio 2024

Last night eight of my ArtCan East Anglia group did an online talk about how we made last year (the pilot year) such a success. Preparing for the talk helped me to contextualize any feeling of not doing enough.  We had fit winning a bursary, three exhibitions and an art fair into our year together and had plenty of lessons learned to share.

I had my final open studio last weekend and am working on my third piece since beginning again.

In the round, when I put all this together, I am feeling very connected to my various art communities, happy with plenty of the work I have made and more determined to make new work.  There is a new ArtCan show next week, FIESTA! And I am excited to make work across media for another show in October!