Isolation Artist Blog - Day 30

This mornings walk along the cliff top was extra special. The sea extremely calm, the colours clear and crisp and an overall good feeling in the air. Perhaps it felt so good because the weather is going to change tomorrow. It looks like we'll be getting rain all week- we're not used to this in lockdown. I associate lockdown with endless sunny days and the option to hang out in the garden whenever I want to.

Last night the programme - "Becoming Matisse" was screened on the TV. I haven't seen it yet but have heard that it's a good watch. Matisse is another of my favourite painters. When he started out he was ridiculed by everyone but carried on revolutionising art in the 20th century. Then in 1941, age 71, he was diagnosed with cancer and he was expecting to die. He had a lifesaving operation but this left him too weak to paint so he invented a new way of working. He began his famous cut-outs. He cut into painted paper with scissors and created a whole body of colourful and lively work. The cut-outs were developed for stained glass and other projects. Matisse took four years to work on stained glass and ceramic murals for the Chapel of the Rosary in Vence, southern France. This is somewhere I'd love to visit and hear that it is likely to move you to tears.

​I remember in 2015, visiting Antony Gormley's 'Another Place' at Crosby Beach, Merseyside. I had wanted to see these 100 cast iron figures on the beach for many years. The first time we went the tide was right in, right up to the wall. I couldn't believe it - I'd waited years and all I saw was a rough grey sea as there wasn't time to wait for the tide to go out far enough to see the sculptures of the life size figures (cast from Antony Gormley's body). The next visit, on my 54th birthday was planned to coincide with the low tide. As I walked over the sand dunes and caught sight the figures I burst into tears. I don't have any words to describe it but highly recommend a visit if you've never been there.

Todays painting is "Peveril Point" - a place near Swanage, in Dorset.