Helen Ryan

My main project for this year was looking at major changes in my life. I am very happily retired. My youngest son moved out and I found myself with time to do whatever I wanted to do, and no excuses not to.
So I guess the main theme of my portfolio was me. Who, what, where am I now, what do I want to do with this new phase of my life.

I started by looking at myself, literally. That was scary but liberating. In the last couple of years I became interested in drawing portraits of friends and family but I had never been brave enough to try a self portrait. Interestingly I found it easier to draw myself, I could be more honest and no need to flatter.

I then started to look at the spaces I occupy, which I found I became more aware of during lockdown. In normal times and when I was working, the rooms were spaces I passed through without really seeing. The forgotten spaces. The stairs, the bathroom, the room I work in. And the spaces left empty after my son moved out, some things he left behind. I looked outward to spaces occupied by family members, the interesting stairwells and rooms of a Glasgow building.

It’s a work in progress. I’ll see where it takes me and hopefully a bit further afield than the last year.