The last few months have been unprecedented, for artists as much as everyone else. There has been a direct impact due to lost sales and income from cancelled exhibitions and teaching opportunities.
However, it has also been a creative and uplifting time in so many unexpected ways, and has challenged me to develop new skills and new ways of thinking about my work and how I see the world.
For starters, I have been so excited to be part of the wonderful Artist Support Pledge, an initiative started by the artist Matthew Burrows, to support artists affected by the lockdown. Artists offer works for sale for under £200, and in return, pledge to buy artworks for £200 for every £1,000 of work they sell.
So, since April I have been posting a few a week @arabellabrooke7823 and have been loving the opportunity to buy more art from artists whose work I enjoy. As a relative old-timer and Instagram newbie, it has felt like a door opening to a wider and generous community of artists and makers, which has been an enormous gift as the doors to the outside world closed.
As part of this initiative, I have been drawing my way through lockdown, and have enjoyed the freedom to imagine new worlds and new ways of expressing ideas in two dimensions. Enjoy!