Art in the time of COVID – A personal reflection

Thank you to Janice Stanford for a delightful post. Janice writes:

“I have never been in a position to purchase artworks by well known artists or indeed by artists not known very well at all!  That’s not to say that opportunity has not been there but I didn’t have the wherewithal, courage and or inclination to purchase at the time when those opportunities arose.

I can tell you about a near miss and my only regret though.  It was while living temporarily in London in the 70s.  I can’t remember exactly where or when I saw the small painting of a vase of flowers on display in a gallery window somewhere in the city.  Simple gestural strokes of pure colour captured the energy and life of those flowers.  I stopped dead in my tracks when I saw it.  It was beautiful. I saw the price tag and my heart sank.  Could I?  Should I?  I paused too long and I didn’t!  So that was how I missed out on owning a David Hockney.

Since then, I have collected so many works of art there is not nearly enough space on the walls to put them.  My house is filled with art and decorative works of all kinds. There are several oil paintings by a dear friend, now long deceased.  A Canberran, he was both a public servant and a painter.  In the early 70s he was experimenting with his painting and amongst his works is the one clearly painted a la Bonnard. The bath is there, the curtains, the tiles and also the nude, bending over to dry herself; not Martha, but his equally voluptuous wife.

Both my mother and my partner’s mother painted, the former worked detailed watercolours of the beautiful English countryside around where she lived and which I also knew well and loved from visits to her in England.  My partner’s mother was much bolder and worked in oils capturing the vibrant and brilliant colours of Queensland and its tropical flowers; bold, alive and exuberant.

My brother in law’s exquisitely fine-crafted furniture, my sister in law’s experiments in colour abstraction and the small pastels and oils of friends are part of our everyday lives. Quirky, playful, restful, beautiful, meditative and uplifting; all are represented. 

The “real artist” in the family, is my stepson.  Eclectic, conceptual, energetic, enigmatic, intellectually challenging and immensely enjoyable are all words that variously come to me when I think of the paintings, drawings, sculpture and objects that I see everyday around our old 1930s house.

And now I have to make room for the next generation, an outline of a small hand scribbled over with energy and rainbow coloured crayons, daubs of paint on butcher’s paper sent with love from Canada. Not much room on the fridge now!

In this time of Covid we have been encouraged to go out only for essentials but amongst those essentials are our family and friends.  As I try to keep myself and others safe by social containment at home, I am surrounded by art that matters so much to me; every piece has a personal connection and story and I feel as if I am amongst friends and family.

And, letting go of any regrets around that David Hockney, that’s what really matters isn’t it?”

Thank you, Janice, for your important and thoughtful reflections. I have attached a ‘virtual Hockney’ in gratitude.

The image which leads into the post is by and of David Hockney and also in the NGV Collection. It is: Self portrait IV, 25 March 2012, (2012) David Hockney.