Glisk

Over the last couple of weeks I’ve found that I’ve been too unsettled to do any work. The speed and intensity of the Coronavirus pandemic has swept all of our lives ahead of it. Its been enough to stay at home with my children and husband (who is working remotely from home), keeping us safe and healthy.

I did spend some time trying some studio practice exercises, just using line and breath, but I found myself feeling sickened, distracted, fearful. In the meantime I have been pinning up random images which attract me, and song lyrics which I find meaningful. Some of the images are found; work by other people, and some are my own - a photograph of our gate I took one day as I left and found a vast silvery sky ahead of me, some experiments I had been doing with graphite, etc.

I had been noticing some sort of theme emerging, but I was reluctant to push for it at the present moment. I was happy for it just to happen. I recognised a continuation of the ‘eye of the storm’ imagery and was planning to move ahead with another painting, inspired by the images, in particular a sense of light shining through darkness.

And then I happened to see on twitter a post by Robert Macfarlane:

“Word of the day: “glisk” - a glitter of sunlight; a glow of heat from a fire; a glint or twinkle in a person’s eye. Figuratively, a glimpse of the good, a brief burst of warmth or hope. (Scots esp. Shetland: archaic).”