A year ago, I was at Riga airport preparing to fly home from an amazing painting residency, for which I'd been selected as one of 15 artists internationally. Today, this years' residents will be flying home, and I know the sadness they will feel, parting from each other. I have followed their progress over the last 3 weeks on Facebook, and 'friended' several of them. This year's residencies took place in the new Mark Rothko Centre, in Daugavpils, Latvia. Last year, the Centre was almost completed, and we had a tour of it, but we stayed at the Park Latgola hotel, in Daugavpils. I felt some pangs of envy - the residency was one of the best moments of my life - and followed their descriptions as if I was living it all again!
One of the artists from my residency was at the Centre this week, for the private view of a show he is having there. Another of my fellow residents flew out for the birthday celebrations of Mark Rothko, which were yesterday, and coincided with the opening of the residents' exhibition of paintings produced during the residency. He took a photo of my largest painting, which is now hanging in the Mark Rothko Centre, as part of an exhibition of past residents' paintings. I was thrilled to see that my painting ('Flying into Riga Airport,') has a wall to itself, and to know that it is there amongst all the other exhibitions!
This is my painting - it is 140cm by 100cm, and it is one of four I made during my time at Daugavpils. It went to Vitebsk, Belarus, in the summer, as part of a show of works representing the Mark Rothko Centre.
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| 'Paphos Walk,' acrylic on canvas, 60 x 45cm |
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