I last wrote a blog post about my life in October 2019 - when the world was a very different place. I'm sure no one could have predicted how much our lives would be impacted by the covid lockdown - certainly, I did not expect it would be 3 and a half years before I blogged again.
Our lockdown here in the UK started in March 2020 - and with it came home schooling. If I thought I was busy when I began my new job, that was nothing compared to working from home and home schooling! As for many parents, and their children, the situation was high pressure and exhausting. Nonetheless, art continued to be an escape for my daughter and I. During lockdown, my daughter started to learn to sew - and I upholstered a chair! This was a fantastic nursing chair with a scalloped edge, and it now looks stunning in my large scale daisy fabric in celosia velvet.
The first lockdown was positive in that it prompted us to move to a lovely new house - I am glad to report that my beloved printing press survived the move no problem. Unfortunately, after this, I was affected badly by long covid, and it was a very slow recovery. I was extremely unwelll until July 2022. I had a few joyful weeks that summer - spending a memorable day at the Festival in Edinburgh with my daughter - and vividly remember enjoying the sense of liberation.
Sadly though, life was about to become challenging again - my father had a catastrophic stroke in September 22 and passed away in February 23. Not long after that, my mother was diagnosed with cancer, and has been undergoing treatment since. However, I am delighted to say, she has responded well to treatment, and her health is good. After all this sadness and difficulty, I now feel in a position to blog about my art work, and to sell the fabrics and wallpapers based on my art work. I no longer wish to maintain a shop selling my original, handmade prints - although I am happy to sell them on an ad hoc basis if people wish to buy them. But I look forward to sharing what I have been creating and learning over the few years - and on that note, I will share the last linocut I created - bullfinches in cherry blossom - a sign of spring here in Scotland, which is just around the corner. These beautiful birds are such an uplifting sight and I am looking forward to creating more linocuts like these and seeing them come to life in my fabrics and wallpapers.
