Life in Lockdown 2020

"The best thing about working from home is my new boss. Her name's Harley and she has four legs and a very waggy tail!"

For me, the object of my desire is peanut butter.

I can't explain the reason for - or origin of - my love affair with peanut butter (or any nut butter, to be honest, - almond, cashew, peanut - I'm not overly fussy just as long as it's smooth and not crunchy!) I hadn't even tried it until my early 20s. It was never a childhood treat or part of a typical sandwich; in fact it wasn't even on my radar, I'd probably passed it in the supermarket thousands of times, oblivious to its intoxicating qualities and my imminent infatuation.

I can't actually remember my first taste either, yet here I am in the clutches of a powerful obsession, at the mercy of this voluptuous elixir. The delicious delirium I crave is served up in spoonfuls of brown. I melt, I ooze. Reality crumbles as my tongue erupts in a conflagration of delight, the splendor of this viscous substance flowing like golden lava to invigorate my taste buds and incite a party in my mouth.

But it's never enough. More, now, again. Resistance is futile. The scent alone can propel me into paroxysms of pining, stimulating my salivary glands and quickening my pulse. Sometimes the mere sound of the lid popping off the jar can excite me so that I stalk into the kitchen, greedy-eyed, a bear at the honey pot or a raccoon around the cookie jar, malcontent until I'm assured of my next fix...Once sated, I then plan the next. And on and on, ad infinitum. It's just another merry-go-round!

This period of lockdown has been a blessing in disguise to me on some levels. It's enabled me to slow down, listen to my body and learn more about my mind so that I can take stock of my life. We're usually all so busy rushing from one thing to the next, juggling this and that and keeping so many plates spinning that we struggle to take the time to pause and reflect. Living so frantically and fast-paced is exhausting! This year I've been gifted with an opportunity to take a step back and appreciate some time out so that I can become more self-aware and evaluate my life. It's been truly liberating!

"This piece is inspired by the idea that I wish I could bottle all the people that have touched my life and take them out whenever I want."

Younger Visitors can you count how many people are in Anne Marie’s bottle?

"This is a pastel painting of local woods, I've missed seeing the bluebells this year."

"This is where I seem to spend most of my life but not in a bad way. Life has slowed down and I'm taking extra pleasure in cooking and just appreciating my environment."

"So grateful for my garden and especially this pond which is alive with frogs and newts and a watering hole for the many birds I love to watch."

"A flight of fancy from a sketch I did on holiday which set me dreaming of travel and holidays hopefully to come."

"The image represents that we are all in the same boat and that now is the time to reflect."

"The image represents the freedom that we are beginning to experience as the lockdown relaxes."

#portraitsforheroes was a project for artists to create free portraits of our COVID-19 heroes.

Neil was allocated Dr Sofia who worked on the COVID-19 wards in a hospital in Liverpool. Sofia elected to have a portrait done of her hero, her Springer Spaniel Lilly who after a hard days work on the ward would meet her at home with heaps of licks and a waggy tail which kept the Doctor in good spirits.

"This was by far the proudest moment for me during the lockdown and I had the good fortune of recently meeting the owner Sofia ,going for a walk with her and Lilly on the beach as the lockdown gradually relaxed its rules."

"I am a ceramic artist working in Hinckley and I run a pottery workshop called The Pottery Pit www.facebook.com/thepotterypithinckley

The lockdown has created an opportunity to make space for my own work. I have started a series of plates using a character affectionately called "Socks". Socks is the sleepy, dreamy creature I have become during lockdown. Trapped indoors, seeking constant comfort from pyjamas, more time to sleep and dream, hair growing in every direction and a melancholic feeling of isolation. "

"These two plates Float Away and Night Fall relate directly to each other. Float Away is Socks in her Safe place dreaming, whilst Night Fall is her dream of falling through the chaos that this year has been."

"During lockdown I have enjoyed my spare time absorbing myself in my art. I particularly enjoy using watercolour and its unpredictability. I have a love of using vibrant, bold colours and seek to express emotions rather than represent the physical world."

"All three paintings evolved through experimentation during lockdown and are between A4 and A3 but . I had trialed the method of using leaves out of the garden and weighting them down on strong mixes of watercolour paint. It's very exciting when the paint dried and I removed the leaves revealing lovely distinctive, unique colourings and markings. I rather liked this effect and in my third painting I wanted to incorporate this method into a picture with meaning. "

"The sizes of my paintings range between A4 and A3 but high resolution Giclee prints are available for sale. Direct message me on Facebook"
https://en-gb.facebook.com/anne.turville.73/about

"This is self portrait drawn in April from a photo in taken in early March of how I was dressing to catch public transport at the beginning of the outbreak, with face wrapped in scarfs & hoods"

"A sketch of some face masks my mum had hand crafted for me & would leave for me to pick up outside her house so I could work through the pandemic."

"I have always tried to use my drawing skills to make sense of what's going on around me and I've found I've never needed them more then I do now. I've needed to put my what's going on in my head to paper and this has taken the form of drawing & writing"

"An architectural drawing of a modern house in two point perspective using professional sketching pencils."

Younger Visitors how many birds can you see in Harry's painting?

"Dreaming of the Coast was created during lockdown and is a wet on wet oil painting in the style of Bob Ross. It was my first attempt at wet on wet as the lockdown gave me the chance to experiment with this technique."

"I've been working on a few pieces while being in lockdown including this portrait of my favourite artist "

"The other portraits are two of my favourite Disney characters, these came about as my holiday to Florida was unable to go ahead this year"

"These photos I have taken represent the ghost town Hinckley became in the early stages of the CoronaVirus."

"Candle... this for me was to signify the Florence Nightingale bicentenary and thinking about a light at the end of the tunnel during those times and having some reflection on the times we are going through now."

"My furry comfort, and I’m sure this is true for alot of people during lockdown, their dogs have been a happy escape walking the countryside."

"I did this at the beginning of the lockdown. It represents the places I loved to visit and of which I have fond memories. It is peopled with faces I no longer see: my son who died last year, friends from dancing and my grandchildren. WhatsApp is no replacement for a cuddle."

"The dining room has become the activity room; the place for reading, writing, Zumba, jigsaws etc. I am working my way through my books that I have previously read. My normal habit is a regular charity shop visit to swop read for unread. The window tempts me out into the real world, but I’m not allowed to go there."

"Much progress is being made on family history. Merlin, the cat, enjoys lockdown and feels that his servant is in the proper place. The table is pushed over in front of the cabinet to make room for Zumba. We never quite manage to eat there any more as there are too many papers, books, drawings and jigsaws. My aluminium owl hangs at the window and looks wistfully at the outside world."

"....documenting the flora and fauna in my garden during lockdown."

Younger Visitors can you draw a picture of the flowers and birds in your garden?

"The image is divided in two, contrasted with red and blue. The blue side is supposed to be somewhat sterile and cold. The imagery I tried to convey was the blue light associated with hospitals and ambulances. I wanted to portray the concept of the pandemic, the emergency services, the isolation and emptiness.

The red side is visually striking but quite simple. I wanted to show the unrest, the riots and upheaval that have also happened during this time. The red side is violence, hostility and conflict.

The skull is the obvious centre piece, illuminated from both sides. It wears the face mask and stares out with hollow eyes from its bleak dystopian setting. The skull simultaneously represents both society and the individual but also the literal imagery of death.

Division is an important part of the piece. The visual contrast also highlights the literal division of everyone isolated from one another and the division in beliefs, thoughts, opinions and actions of individuals. We were united only by our separation."

"I created Virus while I had what I believe was the Coronavirus"

"I wanted to create a piece that represented a point in time. A strange and overwhelming mixture of emotions, facial expressions partly hidden by face masks and a look of fear and anger in people's eyes."

Instagram- caitlinmccann03