The last entry on the website for this News commentary was, as you’ll see, December 2019 – February 2020. The gap of over two years tells you and us everything about this strange long episode, beginning more or less with the first lockdown and which has been difficult, one way or another, for everybody. Friends will know of Liz’s illness, hospitalizations, and ongoing treatment during this period – one in which the door to Blue Door Workshop remained closed and our combined art work was limited to two Christmas cards. Occasionally, Peter has found time and inclination since to try using pen, pastel and coloured pencils on small indoor studies of local trees and hedges after short local walks. He’s also just embarked on a set of illustrations to episodes in James Joyce’s Ulysses which marked the centenary of its first publication earlier this year. The (impossible?) target here is this year’s Bloomsday on June 16th in Dublin – where our son Joe will be a lively and erudite participant.
As we write this now, however, we have just completed a special week when we opened (and cleaned up) the workshop once again to show our combined work over previous periods and to call for people near and far to visit personally or visit the website to choose a work or works in return for a donation to the people of Ukraine via the International Red Cross.
This has been a heartening experience in a number of ways, in people’s generous and supportive response, and not least in encouraging us to think we just might be able to return to painting, lino-cutting, and collage and see these activities again as a part of normal life.