Lockdown in France
We have
been in lockdown now for four and a half weeks and have at least three and a
half weeks to go. I am used to being at home most of the time, but I found myself
at first nonplussed, not just because of the situation, but also because I had to
adjust to my space having been invaded by my husband and children during the
daytime. As a result I couldn’t do anything the first couple of weeks. We are
very lucky in that we have a small garden and our housing estate is in a quiet
area (apart from the Paris-Lyon motorway which is 200 metres from our house,
but which is a bit quieter thanks to the lockdown), so we are able to go out
for our authorised one hour walk within a kilometre of home, in the meadow between
our houses and the motorway and through the passageways that link the roads on
our estate. It is in part thanks to this
I’ve been able to start working again. I have been watching the video tutorials
on Sketchbook Revival (https://www.karenabend.com/schedule-2020/ until 26th April). I tried Karen
Stamper’s tutorial ‘How wild is your garden? Drawing and mark making in black
and white’ https://www.karenabend.com/sketchbook-revival/st-en/, and here is the result:
It’s not extraordinary, but has helped me to find the urge to do something, and I plan to do some more. I took photographs of the silhouettes of the leafless trees and their bark whilst out on my walks, and I am planning to do drawings in black and white and see what comes from that.
Another thing that I have been doing, not every day, but most days, is a small four inch square, playing around with scraps with no plan in mind. I started doing this when I read an article in a recent Quilting Arts about Liz Kettle and the ‘stitch meditations’ that she does, which she explains in her video here: https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=lizkettle&view=detail&mid=0CCE2E527F179D09C0F20CCE2E527F179D09C0F2&FORM=VIRE
I liked the idea and decided to try it.
I have enjoyed doing it, especially as I have no expectations about the results: some are not very interesting, but others have sparked an interest in taking an idea further. I have particularly enjoyed playing with transparent fabrics, and with the flimsy cotton net bags that our local supermarket puts organic lemons and clementines in. The latter I twisted into cords and couched down.
It’s not extraordinary, but has helped me to find the urge to do something, and I plan to do some more. I took photographs of the silhouettes of the leafless trees and their bark whilst out on my walks, and I am planning to do drawings in black and white and see what comes from that.
Another thing that I have been doing, not every day, but most days, is a small four inch square, playing around with scraps with no plan in mind. I started doing this when I read an article in a recent Quilting Arts about Liz Kettle and the ‘stitch meditations’ that she does, which she explains in her video here: https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=lizkettle&view=detail&mid=0CCE2E527F179D09C0F20CCE2E527F179D09C0F2&FORM=VIRE
I liked the idea and decided to try it.
I have enjoyed doing it, especially as I have no expectations about the results: some are not very interesting, but others have sparked an interest in taking an idea further. I have particularly enjoyed playing with transparent fabrics, and with the flimsy cotton net bags that our local supermarket puts organic lemons and clementines in. The latter I twisted into cords and couched down.
