Keep a little fire burning, however small, however hidden…
Is a quote by Cormac McCarthy, which I fell upon when trying to think of an appropriate title for my first blog post. And in actual fact now I look at it, it really is so appropriate for the creative adventure I seem to be on.
I loved art at school, and studied the subject at GCSE, AS and A-level, achieving a score of 100% throughout and applied - and got an unconditional offer to go to Ulster University to do my Foundation Degree in Art and Design. I was really serious about going - attending weekly life drawing classes at the Crescent Arts Centre was testament to that, but in the less than five minutes it took between opening the envelope that harboured my A-level results and reading the grades, I had decided there wasn’t much point in doing my Foundation Year and I really should just get on with a degree that focused on the principles of communication, advertising and marketing…
And with that the door closed on the artistic aspirations I had held so close to my heart for so long.
Fast forward19 years, and like with most passions, I hadn’t realised my love for art hadn’t been extinguished that warm August day in my mum’s living room. An ember had continued to burn, very quietly, very small & hidden - but, importantly, as I discovered recently, still there.
2020 brought the Coronavirus pandemic, but it also brought a chance for me to rediscover my artistic side, through the need for a creative outlet. And it came in the form of baking and art.
I hadn’t put pen, pencil or paint to paper since 2002, but a Christmas present in the form of an Injured Jockeys Fund apron and oven glove set was the spark that made the ember glow.
It took a while, but the first of what is becoming a series of A5 horse drawings was completed and I was buzzing. I have found I love drawing horses and at the moment I don’t want to draw anything else. I have completed two more, one in pencil and one in oil pastel, with the outline of another patiently waiting.
Once the first drawing was complete, I wanted to “do more”, but I wasn’t sure what more was. It turned out I didn’t have to wait long, and it wasn’t an area I had any practical experience in, but there was a passion & that passion was food.