I’ve had a run of ill-health recently with bronchitis, shingles and then hospitalised with low sodium and high blood pressure. It has left me feeling very tired and, unusually for me, unable to draw for a while.
But happily I have started drawing again now and, in my habit of being inspired by my immediate surroundings, have done a series of diagrams of my daily blood pressure monitoring. It is interesting to see how these pieces reflect my health at the time, quite faint in the earlier days, but growing bolder and stronger as the days progressed.
Meanwhile I am also getting ready for the Spring Art Show at The Forum in Norwich, which takes place from Wednesday 5th to Sunday 9th March. I haven’t exhibited at this Art Show for a while, and am slightly trepidatious about the energy it will involve, but it is a good opportunity to display a series of pieces I have worked on in recent years, glimpses of domestic interiors and glimpses of landscape, mostly oils on narrow box canvases, interposed with a couple of watercolours and mixed media, with a few smaller works.
Do come along to the Art Show if you can, not just to see my work, but also the original artwork of over 50 other artists.
I have also entered the next two pieces for the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, which has a theme this year of Dialogue. Competition for spaces at this prestigious exhibition – what I call the Artist’s Grand National! – is extremely tough; they have so many entries. I was lucky to be accepted in the mid 1990s but it was different in those days as you actually took your work in and it was judged on the physical painting. Now it is based on the photo you submit, which makes it easier in some ways, but not if your camera and photography skills are, like mine, a bit lacking! I don’t hold out much hope as I hear that this year’s judging committee prefer more conceptual work.
Diana Lamb 