Lockdown sucked. Not just for me, but for everyone. I felt stuck with being inside all the time and of course not being able to see my friends. This was further exasperated by a break up and the very quick change from being completely independent to being back in the house and obeying someone else’s rules.

As usual, art came to my rescue.

I felt like I was in a bubble. I was in a creative rut and just doing the same things over and over again. Due to this, I just felt so aggravated and just so ready to put down my thoughts on paper.

I started these pieces by just using some left over acrylic paints scraped across the paper. I also added some pastels to create a resist and some watercolour paints on top. I also experimented with adding some collage elements on to the pieces to give a bit of texture.

This piece above is about being what it felt like being locked inside and trapped during the sunny weather. You’ll see that I used marking throughout the piece such as bricks, chains and bars to create the idea of a visual prison. The colours I used are from a summery colour palette as I felt like the warm weather distracted us from feeling too locked into the house. There are also hidden messages along the piece saying ‘trapped and forgotten’. These too are purposely written in light blue pastel in order to show how university students have felt trapped and forgotten by the government. Ooo we are getting political here now.

The second piece is a little darker, but still about Covid 19. This one was a little more angry and used a lot more black ink within the paint. I enjoyed also creating resists in new ways by laying down Magic Tape and colouring pastels on top and removing the tape away.

The third piece included more collage elements and more red and black paint. It was the more extreme of the pieces, but it’s something different I guess.

So there you have it. My thoughts of COVID on paper. Here’s hoping to no second lockdown!