TIPLER, Josie

Like so many others, lockdown came as a massive shock to the system. I went through three stages, just like grief.
Denial – I wasn’t going to let this affect my creativity. I started doing art demonstration videos on Youtube, painted a mural in my bedroom, wrote new songs and determined to paint hundreds of new pieces while I wasn’t working.
I painted abstracts. My method is to let the image flow into an empty mind – I had a far from empty mind so not many abstracts flowed at this stage.
Anger – Well, more like fear. I couldn’t see where life was going, everything had changed and I became ill. I suffered severe pulsating tinnitus and headaches which left me unable to do anything other than doodle for a few weeks.
The mandala style drawings were the result of this.
Acceptance – Life has changed and we just need to get on with it in whatever way we can. I love to paint on glass, having done several in this style and had lined up 2 exhibitions to feature new work so I finally got on with these despite the fact that the exhibitions were not going ahead as planned. Light affects us all and I particularly feel that light in the darkness has an uplifting effect which is why I paint sunlight in dark woodland scenes. These suit a contemplative frame of mind, being a slow and labour intensive process – the image is created by removing paint from the glass with a scalpel blade. 

www.josietipler.co.uk – see links to some of my lockdown videos / T:01323 705153