Staring out of the window...

Painting is my love... but this is my new hobby - and it's how I spend most of my days at the moment!

Isn't it strange that as soon as we're told to stay home, the sun comes out. It's been beautiful weather for the last few days, (which is unusual as I'm located close to Manchester, UK). We have not had good weather for the last 3 years during school holidays but now, typically.. it's beautiful out there!

Over the last day or two I wanted to paint something that is free from constraints and rules, probably because our own freedom is under threat perhaps.... I wanted to make something up, and not to paint something that had to 'look like something' - rules which I usually follow in my art, when I'm painting pet portraits and when I paint horses.

I recently found the most beautiful sunrise photograph and had to incorporate some of it's colours into my painting. Then I thought about where I'd sit to watch the colours changing as the sun came up over the horizon. The jetty seemed the perfect spot... so I added someone gazing out to sea.

As we're all self isolating at the moment, and presumably facing imminent 'lockdown', I thought it would be good to add a friend to sit by, something we're all missing right now. It lifts my spirit and looks out to the new day, into the future, to see what it holds for us. It's a positive painting that I just needed to share.

I hope you're all ok out there, please let me know what you think of my painting, and let me know how you are all getting through these strange unprecedented times

Jill x