MY APOLOGIES – THIS BLOG SHOULD BE BEFORE THE CREMATORIUM COMMISSION.
The opening party of the Antwerp Art Festival was great fun and the following three days were then open to the public.
I got some really good reactions to the tactile paintings and it was good to have time to talk to the people. One couple had arrived especially to visit my stand. They brought with them their ten year old son who was born blind.
I took him to the paintings and explained how to start at the edges and then just feel his way around. By this time a large crowd gathered. I must mentioned that everyone spoke English beautifully, so no language problems for any of us.
The boy was laughing and said it was lovely to feel them, then he reached one and became very quiet. He kept feeling it and turned to me and said ” You are very clever, you have painted my holiday, I as very happy there and I am happy again, thank you”. The crowd were very quiet and we were all moved by him and his reaction to the work.
The painting he loved is called INCOMING TIDE it is a colourful painting of an incoming tide with the waves just creeping to shore, and a sandy beach. The waves had been sanded to a very soft feel and he loved stroking it.
The parents said that they would love to have bought it, but they could not afford it. Every part of me wanted to just hand it to them, but it had been a costly trip and I needed to sell the work. I wish I could give work away to whoever it touches, but life is not like that.
The painting INCOMING TIDE is now part of a collection at Downe Hospital in Northern Ireland.
Having had the trauma of getting the paintings to Belgium I could not face it again, so I found an English couple who were showing work, they lived about an hour from me and I offered them cash if they could take mine home with them for me to collect the following week. A done deal. They were happy, I was relieved and I could relax.