Me again

I notice that the last post on this blog was in April, eight months ago. I rather abruptly stopped painting in May, when my husband was suddenly diagnosed with leukemia. Fortunately things are starting to return to normal this month, with Scott returning to work and me returning to the studio. I feel out of practice and distracted, but grateful to be making art again.

To help me get back into the art groove, I signed up for a cityscape painting course at the University of Edinburgh. It’s easy to find inspiration in a place as beautiful as Edinburgh, and I’m so pleased to finally be using it as a subject in my art (more to come in later posts).

I’m also revisiting my Tokyo project, diligently finishing up paintings that are owed as rewards to my Kickstarter backers, who have been so patient and supportive through this unexpected delay. Those of you who are still waiting to choose your reward will be hearing from me later this week.

I kind of feel like I’m waking up from an eight-month-long sleep. I have much work to do in terms of connecting with the Edinburgh art community, finding local exhibition opportunities, re-stocking my online shops, and so on, but I’ll get there. We arrived in Edinburgh just two moths before Scott was diagnosed, and in many ways I still feel like I’m trying to settle in after that international move.

For now I’m mainly trying to focus on making art. I also plan to start being more communicative in general, through blog posts, Facebook page updates, etc. During Scott’s illness I mostly just did not communicate with the outside world – I was at a loss for what to say most days, and then after such a long silence it seemed strange to start posting again without addressing the reasons for the silence, and again and again I came up not knowing what to say. Anyway, silence broken. It’s good to be back.