Creativity in Covid

by Francesca Howard
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Those of you who know me will know that my family went through an intense period of loss during my exhibition at The Horsebridge in December. The following months, prior to the onset of the Covid grip, were spent coping with the grief. I did not create any art and I did not do anything on social media.

As a cautious way back, I began posting photos of the paintings, cushions and prints I had sold at the exhibition now happy in their new homes. It was a lovely thing to do and proved to be a gentle way of re-approaching my creativity.

I want to take this opportunity to thank those of you who came to my exhibition, those who were generous enough to buy my art and those who supported us during such an awful time.

And then lockdown hit. At the outset I had ideas for what my creative output might be during this very, very strange time. My first response was to make sure my children were safe and so they both came home. Since then my creativity has revolved around cooking and baking, supporting the children, defrosting the freezer and ordering cupboards. Not exactly painting.

So I was wondering if any of you are experiencing a similar situation. Has your usual form of creativity been replaced with forms that respond more directly to the lockdown? Or is it the opposite – that you are finding lockdown the perfect situation for your creativity to flourish and develop in ways you never would have dreamed? I would love to know.

Either way I hope that you and yours are safe and O.K. and that lockdown is not driving you mad and I pray that you stay well. As always, thank you for being there.

16 Comments

  1. I’m rather enjoying lockdown. I have a few work deadlines but nothing else, so I can focus on what I want to do. And that is often very little indeed. But I can’t help feeling this is an amazing time for many of us to reflect on where we’re at, reframe what we’re doing and reject what we don’t need… Your re-approach sounds pretty sound to me.

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  3. I replied to your comment on my post to say I thought you were due a meanwhile period. I didn’t know about the grief you were also dealing with, so it’s no wonder that you’re doing things a different way. I’m finding it easy to write at the moment but also to paint, but when I was going through a long, limbo period when my mother was terminally ill ten years ago, I couldn’t write at all, but I could paint and that’s how I got into art again after not really doing any drawing since school.

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  4. That’s really good to hear, Andrea, thank you so much.
    Funnily enough both my parents died 10 years ago and I did not paint for two years after that. For me painting takes an enormous amount of emotional energy and I just did not have that to spare at that time.
    I love the fact that you are painting! What are you painting?

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  5. I painted some birds, then I painted something inspired by Robert Frost’s Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening. Now I’m working on something inspired by ‘Do not go gently into that good night’…..

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  16. I just love him. He is well and truly a one off. I used to teach an art history class on British art and I would end with Grayson because he has managed to do something which has not been achieved since the Ancient Greeks and that is to elevate ceramics to high art. No mean feat.

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