Getting Back into Art

It has become something of a cliche, but during the lockdowns in 2020 to 2022, I returned to art after a long hiatus as a way to cope with the difficulties most of us faced. The Covid-19 pandemic was a strange and terrifying experience for many of us. Fortunately, I did not lose my job. However, my workload did not go down but rather went spectacularly up. As a Senior Lecturer at one of the world’s top university’s we were obliged to convert all of our normal teaching, meetings, administration, and research activities online, and in record time. A stressful situation to say the least.

To alleviate the stress, and to bring some sense of work-life balance within my period of containment, I decided to take an online watercolour class. It was odd picking up a paintbrush instead of a pen, playing with colour instead of pounding the computer keyboard. The class I signed up for was based out of east coast America and I was the only ‘foreigner’ in virtual attendance. The theme was focused on North American birds which, it turned out, I rather enjoyed attempting to paint. We tackled Blackburnian Warblers, Blue Jays, Pintail Ducks, Snowy Owls, and Hummingbirds, among others.

Out of challenging times can come precious moments, new and unexpected friendships, and renewing old passions and interests. I will be forever grateful to the instructor of that online course, an amazing American artist by the name of Diane Fiedler, who rekindled my love of art once again. Thank You.

Lizanne Henderson

Hummingbird ©padeapix