Juggling roles – life, motherhood, art and the hiatus that wasn’t.

The joy of a personal blog is that you can do as you please – change your mind or go off at a tangent. A comment to ‘Different times, different media’ caused me to stop and reflect. I realised that I had left out quite a bit. So, instead of the topic I had in mind, I’d like to expand on the hiatus that, in fact, was hardly a hiatus at all.

Sure, I didn’t do much painting but it’s not as though I stopped. During the years the children were growing up I did a short spell of high school relief teaching - English and History. Then, surprisingly, a year of teaching Grade 2 children. Today the thought of teaching thirty children aged between seven and eight fills me with quiet horror.

Over a period of about twelve years, also on my list were illustrations for a series of Children’s school readers. For a year I gave private art classes. I made mosaic designs for swimming pools and school badges. Somehow this segued into the design and construction of garden water features and a garden landscaping business. In fact, on remembering all these activities, I feel quite exhausted. I’m surprised I found time to bring up the children – fortunately they seem to have turned out just fine.

Life has a way of happening rather than one being able to follow a specific plan. In fact, often plans have to be abandoned, when something else takes you down a new pathway. All these things I have done make for a very interesting life – I can’t say I have ever had time to be bored.

Eventually I decided that I’d had enough of other stuff and was going to paint full time.

But, oops, I landed up instead buying a retail business. I have learnt such a lot about business, developed unexpected skills, and met such interesting people. It’s twelve years later and once again the new/old plan is being revived. Finally, perhaps, I am now ready to be a painter and to teach, something I trained for years ago.

Different times, different media

Years ago Marshall Mc Luhan said: ‘The Medium is the message. This is merely to say that the personal and social consequences of any medium - that is, of any extension of ourselves - result from the new scale that is introduced into our affairs by each extension of ourselves, or by any new technology.’

The different periods of my life have influenced the choice of medium in my painting.
At Epworth School– it was watercolour. “Mizz” Owen taught us well. In addtion to the fundamentals of drawing and painting, she made us pay particular attention to the care of our precious brushes. During my recent de-cluttering I found my old metal paint box and some of the brushes as well.

My old Winsor & Newton watercolour box


At Art School it was oil paint of course, with here and there a splash of acrylics. Unconventional surfaces were a favourite, I recall incorporating a wooden window frame – sans glass - to accompany an abstract painting. I don’t have any photos, because we didn’t take ourselves seriously enough to warrant documenting any of the works - pity.

There was a hiatus of some years while my children were growing up, but I then went back to watercolour. I was very involved with the Watercolour Society of South Africa  and was able to combine painting with raising a family. The introduction of collage gave the paintings an added dimension.
It was also during this time that I became fascinated by miniature art and after a talk by the founder Charmian Keneally I joined the Miniature Art Society of South Africa.



Blue porcelain & Tomatoes Watercolour on paper 57mm x 70mm
©2000 Carol Lee Beckx

 

Arch series – Abdaye Brialmont Watercolour on paper 90mm x 60mm

©1998 Carol Lee Beckx
 



Arch series – Limbourgh Watercolour on paper 90mm x 60mm

©1998 Carol Lee Beckx
 

 The attention to detail and importance of every part of the composition can become addictive. It also calls for a very steady hand – no sneezing, please!


Arch series – Maastricht Watercolour on paper 90mm x 60mm

©1998 Carol Lee Beckx
 



Eventually the detail of miniatures became too confining. I began to struggle both with the watercolour medium as well as my subject matter. I just wasn’t able to express myself fully. Many paintings were abandoned, to later be recycled as collage elements or greeting cards.

A few years ago, with more life changes, I became restless and needed something different.

So, after a break of many years, I resumed painting in oils. At first it was really hard – it was as though I had never used a brush. Gradually the medium stopped fighting me and it grew a little easier.

I began to enjoy the freedom of exploring the paint as though it were completely new to me. I felt as though I had come home.



Blue bowl with Apples Oil on canvas 500mm x 500mm

©2004 Carol Lee Beckx



Philanjalo - live longer

The countryside is dry, dry, dry. There are rocks, dried aloes, and dry earth. There is no grass to speak of – what there is has been turned to stubble by the goats. No rain has fallen since April this year. The streams and rivers are collections of boulders – there is no sign of water. All my photographs have a haze –a dust haze that coats the landscape. The sky will only clear when rain has washed the sky.


Tugela Ferry mountains

I spent last weekend in Tugela Ferry in rural Kwa Zulu Natal, one of the poorest regions in the whole of South Africa.

Along the road we pass children with 20 litre containers of water on their heads or in wheelbarrows - if they’re lucky.  They get water from pumps at the roadside and then have to transport it back to their homes often kilometers away. We are greeted with smiles and friendly waves – so cheerful in spite of extreme poverty.

Carrying water home

My contact there, a doctor working at Philanjalo, showed us around. Philanjalo – meaning live longer - was started as a hospice for aids patients.The local people have a very high incidence of MDR TB – multi-drug resistant Tuberculosis and XDR TB, coupled with an HIV AIDs infection rate of about 50%, making it exceptionally difficult to treat the disease.
With the outbreak of the TB epidemic TFCARES set up the clinic as a research station.Doctors from all over the world come to Tugela Ferry to do research into MDR TB and XDR TB.

Now the emphasis at the clinic is on ARV treatment - treating the side effects of HIV Aids. I was struck by how clean and efficient everything was – and the cheerfulness of both patients and staff in spite of the enormity of the problems faced. Philanjalo works in conjunction with the Church of Scotland Hospital and provides both clinic and home based care as well as care for children left orphaned by the HIV aids epidemic.

On Saturday a trip to Msinga Hill was proposed. Oh dear, I thought, not mountain climbing!
Not at all - there is a road to the very top. The purpose of the road  became all too clear with the incongruous presence of a cell phone mast. 

Msinga Hill Rocks

From the top of Msinga Hill we could see patches of green along the Tugela River – the lifeblood of the area. Here plots of land are allocated by the Chief of the Msinga area to the local inhabitants. They have created community gardens planted with mealies, spinach, potatoes and tomatoes that flourish on water pumped from the river. The produce is sold at the market in town.

Community Gardens along the Tugela River

Violent inter- faction fighting previously wracked Tugela Ferry.  However, life now seems more peaceful – perhaps fighting poverty, MDR TB and HIV Aids is enough of a challenge for the people of this village.

To give you an idea of the value of the work done by these marvellous doctors and nurses, I quote from an email I received from the doctor we visited:

“The patient that I had to treat yesterday and who I thought would die, when I saw him today, is sitting up in bed, eating and chatting to his relatives.   Miracle”