Emerging from the dark

Painting this small portrait of Paris, who won the SPCA Mutt of the Year last September and only received it a few days ago, seems to have shaken me out of my lockdown torpor, so great was my shame at my sloppy forgetfulness!  My thanks to Margaret and Trevor Dearlove for their patience and forgiveness in the matter.

And now it is time for Ibis to reopen.  What a strange time it has been, a truly mixed bag of both good and downright confusing, right through to the horrible and scary, and I am not talking about the virus itself, but the billowing mayhem and lunacy which it set in motion. But there are good lessons to be learned and one can only hope those in power are prepared to make necessary changes so that we do not continue hurtling at high speed through the night with no real idea of where we are going, why we are doing it, and how it will end. I loved the wise and gentle humour that sprang forth spontaneously during this time and the sense of real humility, gratitude and love for the natural world and the animals emerging from hiding to be seen again where they are actually entitled to be. It is possible to live simpler and kinder lives, to know when we have enough, to not be driven constantly by a need to have more things, more money, more status. And to divorce ourselves in the process from all that really gives our short but truly miraculous lives real meaning. Time to re-read EF Schumacher, or discover him if you never have. (Small is Beautiful. Good Work, Guide for the Perplexed,) 

So Ibis will reopen on Saturday 27th June. You will find us somewhat downscaled and bamboozled as we work out what our path forward is to be, what the good work is that we should be producing as a tiny business in a small country town during these troubled times. If we want a world changed for the better, it is up to us all to think through those changes and embed them responsibly in our own small spheres of existence.  A graffito in Hong Kong during March read as follows:  "There can be no return to normal because normal was the problem in the first place."  This is a great truth. We have to rethink everything.  
I enjoyed painting Paris very much and have decided to go back to doing these small portraits - graphite, aquarelle pencil and watercolour drawings on watercolour paper really  - of animals. My Emerging from Lockdown fee is R950.00.