Emma West

Beech

Collection of porcelain tiles impressed with a variety of freshly emerged beech leaves.

Spring

Collection of porcelain tiles impressed with a variety of grasses and embroidered bird.

THE PANDEMIC EFFECT

The bewildering shock wave of lockdown stunned and immobilised. I found it impossible to work or to catch hold of the creative vein that normally anchors my daily routines. Life and work were instantly fractured.

Instead I walked, walked and walked, until the landscape around me flooded in. The world demanded, “Look”, “Look!” and then “Look again!”

Gradually my senses were pulled back into what it is to be a human in the context of the most glorious spring I can remember. The blackthorn blossom gathering like snow. Beech leaves newly emerged, papery, silken and taking the wind’s breath. The first soul lifting swallows glimpsed over the river. The flowering of grasses.

Taking heart from the kindness of plants and comfort from the beauty of landscape. This is where I still find myself, gently coming back to life, letting the world speak and being guided by it.