Life, death and painting

Sunny summer days are so heavenly at Hepworth Towers it often feels as if we’re on holiday here. I am currently addicted to cycling and to painting, which means that the extent of my work in the garden consists of watering the seedlings, the geraniums on the front door step, and the baby trees that I’m growing in pots. The weeds are having a field day.  😊

But my first sweet pea came out yesterday:

I’ve finished another daisies painting, which a friend is buying

I’m having trouble with one of cow parsley, which is still very much a work in progress

and I’ve discovered a treasure trove of interesting interviews available online on BBC Sounds (BBC iPlayer) that I listen to when I’m painting. 

The programme is called This Cultural Life. So far I’ve heard 45 minute interviews with Ken Loach, Maggie Hambling, Paul McCartney, Caitlin Moran, Jacqueline Wilson, Sally Wainwright, Tracey Emin, Glenda Jackson and Florence Pugh. They were all fascinating, but Tracey Emin’s is the one that sticks in my mind: her thoughts about death and life were thought provoking and brought to mind the bit in Quaker Faith and Practice that reads: Accepting the fact of death we are freed to live more fully. I’m living mine as fully as I can, and loving it. 

And here’s a related idea which is relevant to my painting (which I fell into three years ago when I was 70.)