Dear Lizzie (27 Feb ‘26)
Dear Lizzie
Your last letter was such a beautiful reminder about staying focused on the things that matter, tending your garden, tending your family and your practice the way you do, even in these very slow times and when our heads are full of doubt about our work, thinking of you cutting flowers to take inside to paint is such a lovely and comforting image.
With less than a week to go before my work absolutely has to be at the framer, I feel like I’m standing on that bridge, teetering towards something new but it’s unclear. I have visions of large sheets of canvas pinned to the wall, Rose Wylie style, big bold brush strokes, but meanwhile I’m looking at 14 small still life works, quiet and restrained. Maybe that is just how I paint? Pre-show jitters maybe? I’m so ready to move onto the next body of work but need to try and sell some small studies from my studio (the old cash flow issue) and am worried about conflicting with the gallery but have to cover my costs. Breath.
My favorite day of the year is approaching. March 1st, the first day of Autumn. My season. I felt it in the air the other day, in the rain and the cloudy morning, putting on my new hand knitted cardigan made me so happy. The small pleasures.
I joined a gym. Seemingly I’m of an age when weight training and balance exercises are important, rudely reinforced when I was watching a Smiths cover band the other night, congratulating myself on being out past 9 pm, then lost my footing and ended up flat on my back, throwing my cup of wine directly into my own face. Fortunately, my daughter was too hysterical to take a photo. So now I’m reading Nora Ephron because I’m getting older and need her brilliant perspective.
I can’t stop thinking about Rose Wylie. Her major exhibition opened this week at the Royal Academy in London. She is 90. I love her. She paints until 3 am. I know we all must find our own language and it has taken her half a century to find hers, but she seems so certain, so sure of what her intention is, what she wants to see when a painting is finished. Something to think about.
Looking forward to our launch meeting/lunch.
X
Stacey
