Sunday 25 October 2020

CORONA YOU HAVE NOT KILLED MY MUSE

We spent some time in South Africa this year.  Beautiful Hermanus is always a special place for me.  I avoid going to Cape Town.  Like any other large over-populated city in the world, it is loud, dirty and the traffic is horrendous. We were fortunate enough to board one of the last flights to Germany. Corona hit the world with a bang and life changed overnight.  Restrictions, lockdowns, fear and death chased my painting muse away. There was a sense of complete helplessness in the face of a virus of which I had never heard.  Our small town in Bavaria is a lovely farming district so walks in the fresh air were part of our rather isolated lives.

In a strange way one is almost immune to the new wave of Covid 19. You put on your mask to go shopping without thinking too much about it. You keep your distance wherever possible and continue to sterilise everything that could possibly contain a virus or two.... shopping carts, public toilets, etc. 

My muse had a serious chat to me. She told me it was time to show this darned virus that it is not going to take away your creativity. A client had given me a commission and I just could get down to painting something that had a lot to do with memory and imagination.  Suddenly, I felt a burst of enthusiasm and started the process. What a joy it was.  There was a tinge of sadness as the scene was one of the South African Veld and I was overcome with home-sickness.  Tomorrow I will be handing the work to its new owner with a tinge of regret for things that were so beautiful in my country of birth.  So here it is ACACEAS FOR DOROTHEA.

 



No comments: