A Resurgence in Withdrawal – Pandemic Creativity and Covid-19 Lockdown Art

 

AuthorSC SkillmanPosted onJuly 24, 2020CategoriesArt, Australia, British, design, empowerment, inspiration, life, nature, places I love, places of inspiration, positive thinking, SC Skillman, SC Skillman Author, UKTagsacrylic paints, Covid19lockdown, creativity, gardens, inspiration, landscape, lockdown art, paintings, perspective, resurgence, SC Skillman

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Edit"A Resurgence in Withdrawal – Covid-19 Lockdown Art"So many of us have reacted in different ways to the Covid 19 pandemic, and the experience of lockdown or severe restrictions on movement with the regional tiers has caused some to be energized and to leap into action in house and garden, whilst others relapse into lethargy, feeling anxious, disorientated and bewildered by what’s going on in the world. Among writers, and creative people, we have heard many report a wide variety of responses. Some may have taken up a new activity or found new ways of doing things.

Many writers also enjoy other forms of creativity. Among us we may find songwriters and musicians, singers, dancers and cartooonists; actors and artists. I’ve taken up art. An artist friend lent me her artist’s supplies before the first lockdown and then of course I had no chance to call on her to give them back. She urged me to use them, though I hadn’t painted for years.

The sumptuous thick squidgy texture and the brilliant colours of the acrylic paint called me, and the full set of artist’s brushes invited me to engage with them.

So I ordered a Strathmore art pad online and began painting.

One of my earliest efforts presented an opportunity to lavish cobalt blue onto the paper…

blue and purple iris in acrylic paint SC Skillman lockdown art

Then I thought I’d try a tree of life…

tree of life in acrylic paints SC Skillman lockdown art

The next one was in freestyle, and ended up looking like a fabric design:

red and yellow design acrylic paints SC Skillman lockdown art

A beautiful blue borage flower caught my eye in a friend’s photo on Facebook. Some see it as a weed. I loved the colour and the symmetry.

borage flower in acrylic paints SC Skillman lockdown art

The next day a photo of a quarry garden inspired me. My husband looked at my painting and identified the ‘path’ as a river, and that’s when I realised the photo is just a guide, and at a certain point lack of technical skill tips you over the edge into fantasy.

river and garden in acrylic paints SC Skillman lockdown art

My sister sent me her photo of rich rainforest on the Queensland/New South Wales border. I loved the perspective. Standing on the edge of a cliff, the viewer gazes down to the waterfall far below.

rainforest and waterfall in acrylic paints SC Skillman lockdown art

Following a week in Cornwall visiting some vibrant tropical gardens, I felt like capturing one of the many vistas at Trebah:

garden and bridge in acrylic paints SC Skillman lockdown art

For fiction writers, taking up another art form gives fresh insights into the process of creating a novel.

Each time I paint a picture there’s always a point when I think, ‘This is going to be a mess. This feels so random’. And probably many of us can relate to this, whilst writing the first draft of a novel.

Yet if we persist beyond that point, later, we may often read our manuscript through, and think, ‘oh it’s not so bad after all’.

Viewing a photo of art enables me to see it more objectively. It also changes the colour slightly and makes it appear more muted and subtle, and even gives the image a different feeling. So it is when, perhaps, we gain an insight onto our manuscripts by standing at one remove from it, which is often achieved by reading feedback on our work from a beta reader or an editor,

Something happens through that experience, an unexpected way of seeing the work afresh, from a new angle.

Do you have other artforms which give you great pleasure, and through which you express yourself, as well as creative writing?

Have you taken up anything new or creative in lockdown?

Perhaps feeling flat and dispirited and down has led to something unexpected, which has given you a sense of fresh possibilities?

SC Skillman

psychological, paranormal and mystery fiction and non-fiction

My latest book

Paranormal Warwickshire

 was published by Amberley on 15th November 2020.