'Shadows March' | 24 x 60 | oil on canvas
We are delighted to have our first art show with Theresa Williams!
Theresa has shared with us a beautiful statement about her process in making this body of work:
Like many people, I spent a lot of March asking questions and looking for answers. What is this virus? Where did it come from? When will it hit here? Who is most at risk? How will we stay safe and what will our new normal become? However, I am not a scientist and I am not a doctor or health care professional, and I could not find answers that felt right. Not that there were not lots to pick and choose from, especially from amongst all the opinions expressed on social media!
'Clouds Lifting' | 40 x 60 | oil on canvas
The worry and stress started getting to me and I just could not seem to stop the circular pattern of my thoughts and especially the awfulizing. One night after a long day at work, I went into my studio and wrote myself a note: “Stop thinking and just paint. Stop thinking and just live.” And then I started painting and for those first few hours finally found an escape from all that thinking. And the more I painted the fewer questions I had and those became less and less important.
Acceptance is never easy, and it takes time to process grief, however getting out of my own head space was the first step to moving past an exceedingly difficult time. And looking around at my paintings as I lined them up for their final preparation eight weeks later, I was most gratified to see so much unexpected serenity in all their beauty. While I was working on one of the last pieces, I heard Van Morrison’s ‘Days Like This’ play on the radio and quickly made a note of that as a title for the painting. There are so many nuances in the song lyrics but what most struck me was the line, “when you don’t need an answer, there’ll be days like this”. Choosing to stop asking all those questions meant I did not need any answers and neither did the paintings.
Leave a comment
Comments will be approved before showing up.
