It has taken me quite a while to be able to draw after the events in Brussels of 22nd March. I had visited that fair city very recently and enjoyed drawing there and taking photographs as I have shared on this blog. I am still processing everything that has happened and will be for some time as will so many others. My thoughts are with the families and loved ones of the victims always. I could only make a drawing on the Good Friday of that week and am sharing it here. I called it ‘Circle of Thorns’. I made it using oilbars and graphite. It came from a sketch done on the spot of an arrangement of twigs from my customary walk in the park in Clitheroe. The whole week reminded me of how I felt on that traumatic week when Derrick Bird shot so many people in Eskdale in June 2010. I was staying in that beautiful valley on a retreat. We were in our little bubble responding to nature when it happened. I was at St.Bees beach trying to draw but couldn’t ,then helicopters hovered over me looking for him I learned later. Two women cowered by the promenade and told us what was unfolding. I couldn’t respond artistically to the beach of my homevillage that day even before I knew the reality. We sense on some level the energies around us. It has been the same with Brussels. Here are the drawings Click to enlarge.

Here are some more images from Brussels, enjoy!

Got back last Monday after a visit to Brussels and managed to get a day drawing and photographing round the city. The Jardin Botanique gave me some great ideas for a new painting in my series for the ‘Self and Other’ theme for the Neoartists show that I am on with making a proposal for. Not ready to share here until I’ve made it. Got to guard the gold as it were. Can share some of the shots I took, and beermat sketches. Don’t forget to click to enlarge. Need to do some drawing next as well. I’ve been writing and reading for my Artshealth project on puppetry which has taken me away from making art. Need to remedy that! Anyway here are some shots.