I thought I had already posted this, but Have just found it in drafts, so clearly didn’t get around to finishing it. I have shared some of this on Facebook, so apologies to my Facebook friends for posting this twice. It is also not what you might expect me to post on the Saturday before Easter Day. It was written last Friday, 26th March.
I was given a bag of watercolour paints this morning. Upon investigation however I discovered that many of them were gouache, something I have never painted with before. I put them away to explore another day. Most of the watercolours were ones I didn’t already have. Those on the bottom left of this photo are the ones I already have.
As I was very tired and didn’t feel as though I had the energy to paint anything I decided to do a colour chart. After watching a YouTube tutorial I drew squares on a page of watercolour paper. The tutorial had a 8 x 8 grid. I had another 24 squares so did colours in those squares and chose 8 from them to do the grid where each colour in turn was mixed with a little of the others. It took longer than I expected, but I now have it to refer to.
This afternoon I had a walk by the river and realised that I was feeling quite sad. I have been touched by 5 deaths in the last few weeks. Four of them were sudden and unexpected and of those one was someone I was close to and two were part of church family. So it is not surprising that today, my day off, I am feeling the effects.
When I got back from my walk I had a cup of tea – that universal beverage that makes all well…… or at least bearable. I decided to do a painting of flowers using the paints left out on the plate from the morning. I was going to do a wet on wet splodgy one and then do flower shapes in pen. However, the flower shapes were not wet enough to spread and so the result was something not quite as abstract. I enjoyed doing it and now I feel a bit brighter. It isn’t the best bit of art by any means, but it served a purpose of helping me to unwind.
Footnote: The painting has brightened my room all week. I think I will frame it, but the only frame I have isn’t quite the right size. It will do for now. I visited one of the bereaved families yesterday after I had finished the Good Friday services, to help them prepare for the funeral. They have received a vast number of flowers from friends. It is good to see community support. Flowers remind us of love and especially spring flowers are a reminder of Easter and new life.
Elizabeth Jones' Diary 