It was only a matter of weeks after my first show that I was able to secure a second solo exhibition in one of the Art Galleries at the Salisbury Library. This time the show would run for three weeks.
Twelve months to create 22 tactile paintings. I already had six from the first show so this did not seem like such a tall order. Having said that, each painting does takes a few weeks to prepare and complete.
In the meantime I did find out from the RNIB website there are over 2,000,000 visually impaired people in this country, the vast majority being over 65 years of age, when their vision deteriorated and 25,000 children are blind or partially sighted. Just knowing these facts spurred me on.
I loved painting stories and I cannot begin to explain how the transition is made from listening to the spoken word or reading, into a painting. It just happens.
For example, I heard on the radio, a woman describe what it was like to be in a Concert hall and listening to music that fills the whole space and her very being. She said that she felt as one with the music. A great description.
I sketched some musical notes and a treble cleft and just played with the shapes and patterns. I painted the them onto a canvas, the treble cleft to the left and then added large and small notes to show loud and soft music. I deconstructed the treble cleft and put it together into the shape of the Conductor, with a note shown as his head, he is waving a baton in the air. The shapes at the bottom of the painting are the heads of the audience watching and listening. To create the painting I used sand, glue and paint, building up layers, finally applying paint and varnish. I recreated a number of the same images in different colours. It is called the SANDS OF MUSIC. ( John Humphrys later bought the painting).
The exhibition was finally set up and every single painting was meant to be touched. No-one was going to be excluded from the gallery and in addition 4sight in Bognor supplied me with braille descriptions for each painting.
Read the next blog to find out what happened at the exhibition, and media coverage.