BEHIND CLOSED DOORS

Lockdown hasn’t brought much change to her daily routine, admits artist Michelle Rogers. She likes to start her day with a good coffee before spending hours in her studio, leaving the concerns of the outside world at the door as she concentrates on her work. This time of year would usually find her in Rome but now she is working in Dundalk, after returning from London to her family home at the beginning of lockdown.

‘I have set up a studio in the my mother’s house, in the bedroom I had as a kid,’ she explains. ‘I had just got back from London when lockdown started in Ireland so I had to self isolate for two weeks. I spent a lot of time wandering around the garden every day and I got to really look at all the plants my Dad had planted and began to really appreciate what he had done.’

‘I could see the vibrancy in the plants and flowers and began to notice all the birds and insects which visit the garden,’ she says.

That time spent in the garden, observing the changes as the season progressed, prompted her to begin work on a new painting which shows her deep love for nature and her concern for the environment. ‘I asked my two nieces if they would model for me and I got the materials I needed.’

Nature features in many of her works, including Eco Primavera, a reworking of Boticelli’s Primaver, with over 100 birds, insects, flowers and small animals that are on the IUCN

Lockdown hasn’t changed artist Michelle Rogers’ daily routine that much.

red list of threatened species, as well as those for her exhibition inspired by the works of Patrick Kavanagh which was shown in The Basement Gallery last summer.

‘I had never really done a painting of Irish wildlife before so it was lovely to come to painting Irish birds like robins and thrushes, which I hear every morning.’ Entitled ‘Livia’s Irish Garden’, it is inspired by the Garden Room in the Villa of Livia in Rome.

Working on this painting means a lot to her as it is a tribute to her father’s love of gardening and nature. ‘Dad used to make fun of me and say you will never compete with nature and I’d say I still wanted to paint it.’

‘It’s lovely looking around his garden and to remember the love and care he put into it for 35 or 40 years, It is such a lovely legacy that he has left for us. The painting is an ode to that, a thank you.’

Michelle admits that she is quite enjoying the opportunity to slow down and paint for herself. ‘I had eight exhibitions in two years and was tired, so it’s nice to just have the time to paint something for myself, that’s not for an exhibition.#

She is also glad that lockdown has given her a greater appreciation of the beauty to be found in her hometown. ‘It’s all about focusing on Irish nature. Often, you don’t pay attention to what’s around you and you ignore what’s in front of you.’

Alongside enjoying Irish nature, Michelle was delighted to discover that she could get a good cup of coffee in Dundalk, even during lockdown, joking that all artists need good coffee to start their day.

‘I spend a lot of time in my studio anyway, so the routine is not that different. Basically if you are an artist, you go into your room, listen to music and paint, so it’s not much different.’

She says that artists are used to dealing with uncertainty in their lives and are used to putting these aside and getting on with their work. ‘We are almost trained to do that, to concentrate on our work and not to worry about anything else It’s very helpful in a pandemic. A lot of people who get really worried, end up going down rabbit holes of worry which doesn’t help. As an artist you are trained to focus on what’s in front of you on the canvass or page and to push regular worried aside and keep them outside the studio door.’

‘It’s the arts which have kept people going, whether it’s music or reading or Netflix or television,’ she notes, adding that she hopes people will recognise the contribution which artists made during this time. ‘ The people who are really going to suffer most are the artists, musicians, actors. All these artists were appreciated in the time of greatest need but they need to be given priority afterwards.’