After painting on my own through lockdown I decided I needed a teacher, so in October 2021 I signed up for art classes at my local arts centre, Norfolk Creative Arts, run by Hans Rahn. The teachers are excellent and there are many courses in varied subjects; acrylic painting, oils, mixed media, watercolours, upholstery and more.  I was pushed to explore and experiment in the classes and they were technically helpful too. It was a lot of fun and good to be with a group of would be artists after being shut away for so long.

Here are some paintings from those classes.

I drew the rook in 10 minutes with a black marker pen and a splodge of blue, an exercise in working fast in an unfamiliar medium. I was surprised at how well it turned out.  This was a great exercise for me as I am quite a slow painter and inclined to fuss about detail. No chance to do that in 10 minutes!

I painted  the Leopard from a photograph taken by the wildlife photographer Aditya Singh.  I liked the leopard so much that I am thinking of doing a series of African animals. Because photographs have copyright, I had to get permission to make this painting. I am planning to visit our local wild life park, Banham Zoo, so that I can take my own photos of exotic animals. 

The Fox is collage and paint and printed locally (organised by Hans) to use as my 2021 Christmas card. 

The last one is from a news photograph of the refugee camp at Moria, Lesbos, Greece which was set on fire. The teacher asked us to paint a subject which conveyed or evoked strong emotion. I was moved by the refugee crisis and in this photo particulary, by the woman’s distress. Maybe she had lost everything in the fire. Where had she come from? What happened to her?