0: England : A New World in Lockdown for Covid 19

Wonderlust - Unsaturated : ~ Emma Hill 2020

Wow, now we truly are living in crazy times of uncertainty and fear in lockdown due to the virus Covid 19. In the Uk we are a week and a half into our lock down, at home in isolation. Many people are sick and many are dying, I'm not going further into this as there is enough in the media and on the news. Instead I'd like to bring forward and share inspiration, positivity and hope that art can give to us all. 

It feels quite strange that right now and back then in the span of 20 years our time has become polar opposites, but I truly believe in our creating art it still has the same values that are even stronger today in our isolation.

At the beginning of this year 2020 I had decided to start to blog (again), to copy up my writings of my diary - Art Culture Vulture : Travels of an Art Seeker -My Artist journey from 2000- 2002. I  lasted a month and I didn't even get beyond my updates from the UK. The format I chose was jumping the time zones, I didn't even make it to +1 ! 

So now that I've got lots of time and don't really feel like painting, that will come, I'll get back to this. While my artist journey took me on travels worldwide as a sought art globally, now it feels even further away, totally out of reach,  impossible.  Yet with the advancement of technology at our fingertips we can still search, find and share art connecting worldwide from the isolation of our bedroom. 

The painting above I painted a month or so ago, but I've taken the saturation out, below is the original.  Now as I look at both images it seems quite appropriate. Above reminds me of the mountain peaks, ski slopes and the valleys below. Usually this weekend we have so far been lucky to go to the Alps skiing most years and yet that's where our European outbreak started. It's not quite black and white, just a hint of pink and blue that gives me hope.  In the original colour version below and my thoughts after painting it was that it looked like a suspended city. It made me think that here we are, nature is fighting back finding her balance, claiming what is rightly hers. To me the painting looks like a vast landscape that is waiting for us to explore and enjoy, while a pink swallow / hummingbird leads the way. We are still there, but within harmony with nature on her terms. Where I thought it felt like a warning for climate change, now it gives me hope beyond this virus. While we are in lockdown it appears that nature is slowly repairing itself. 

I most definitely didn't think any of this when I painted it, it wasn't intentional, it's only afterwards I try and look and see things, mostly to find a name. 

Wanderlust :  is a strong desire to wander or travel and explore the world.

I guess the whole point of what I'm attempting to do here. 

The scenic photographs below are where I go with my family for our daily walk, down our road around the golf course, mostly we go to catch the sun set and enjoy nature's beauty among the trees. 

Jessica's Pond

Golf Course

Wanderlust : Emma Hill 2020