A Pause

I'm not going to miss February, I am very happy that March has arrived, I found February a hard month to navigate, like walking through thick, dark treacle.  It was a month of surprising lows and not many highs.  I say surprising, because I had surfed most of the darker months unscathed, and usually I'm a person who suffers with SAD from mid December thereabouts.  I thought I had escaped it, January was an ebullient and joyous month, crammed with opportunity and optimism and yet February sucked, at least, for most of it.  I succumbed to feeling teary and lost, I had zero enthusiasm and cried at TV adverts (is this just me?).  I slept a lot due to a heavy fatigue and ate too much junk (which hinders rather than helps) and felt generally pretty hopeless.

However, there were glimmers of light, hope and gratitude amidst the dark days.  The first being when awaking teary once again my other half decided we should wag off work and go to Leeds for the day.  I dropped my daughter at school, cheered on by a weak winter sun and felt a small bubble of - wait, was it...happiness? Yes, yes I think it might have been.  The idea of leaving home for a few hours, going to a different city, to enjoy a wander, a hot coffee and a warming lunch - it was suddenly all rather exciting.

I was still somewhat fragile though, and found myself in one of my favourite shops, Neal's Yard Remedies, telling the lovely woman who works in there all about my ailments.  I came away with a stash of St Johns Wort tincture, some healing Lemon Balm Tea, and a cocoa superfood blend for my smoothies.  I made a concerted effort to eat better food, I religiously enjoyed a morning smoothie blessed by the magical qualities of the superfood powder, and slowly I started to feel better.

We went down south for the school holidays to stay with friends.  It was a welcome break for us all and we enjoyed trips to London where we visited Madame Tussauds and down along the coast to Portsmouth.  Storm Doris whipped the UK during our trip, and we went down to the local beach to see the fury of it, enjoying the energy and noise of the wild waves roaring up the pebble beach.  The wind had us keeling almost sidewards, it was exhilerating, I loved it.  

I arrived home after a full to bursting week feeling tired but good.  I had a sudden rush of new ideas for paintings, and with the arrival of a brand new month I felt I had crossed the final frontier of winter and was heading, at last, in the right direction.  To warmth, to the light. 

Since my last post, I've been busy working on new paintings.  I finished a Bluebell scene which is hopefully going to be turned into a print by Whistlefish Galleries, and another more illustrative one with my happy, colourful flowers called 'All Roads Lead Home' which reminds me of warm evenings in May (my favourite month) when all the colours are so glorious, and there are so many flowers to see.

These paintings were my saviour in February.  Escaping to my studio, sticking on an old CD and whiling away the hours with paint and music is possibly the best therapy I can afford myself.  I lose myself in those hours, thinking only of colour and form, allowing the images to emerge from my mind, through the brush and onto the paper or canvas. 

They will both be available to purchase soon. 

I'm now working on some beautiful, smaller, mounted paintings which will be perfect for Mother's Day gifts (including the image below).  I am launching this little collection to my email subscribers first this Friday, so if you are interested in finding out more you are very welcome to sign up here.

So here's to March, a new month, a new season emerging.  I am hopeful that it is going to be a good one.