Mearns artist says painting has helped cancer battle.

MEARNS: Spanish pilgrimage inspired work for artist’s exhibition

The incredible journey of a Mearns woman battling cancer and her story of how painting helped her find “the way through” has provided the inspiration for her second art exhibition.

Alison Chandler turned to painting when diagnosed with a rare cancer, creating almost a picture a day as she underwent chemotherapy sessions.

She used her finished pieces to stage her first exhibition, which toured the north east last year.

Her story was the focus of film director Tim Langford, whose short film, Painting Myself Brave, was launched in Johnshaven last March. It won a gold award at The One Reel Awards film festival in Los Angeles this year.

As she focused on her treatment and recovery, Alison set herself another goal: to walk the El Camino de Santiago in northern Spain for the second time, the first being in 2015, the year before she was diagnosed. She achieved her dream late last year.

Just as she turned to art to deal with her months of treatment, Alison has drawn on her Spanish walk for inspiration for her second exhibition, The Way Through. It has opened at the Johnshaven Heritage Museum and reflects her feelings, thoughts and responses to this second pilgrimage.

Alison, 61, said she became “obsessed” with painting when first diagnosed. She said: “It really did feel essential, vital in the beginning, to paint. I don’t know how I would have found my way through.”

She is frank in detailing her journey through diagnosis and treatment for abdominal cancer. “They removed a large part of intestine and I now have an ileostomy. I am very happy to say that, as I think it’s very important to normalise this. There are lots of people out there with a colostomy or ileostomy. It didn’t stop me walking 116km.”

She explained how she picked up the paintbrush during treatment. “I was just sitting there, in limbo, in a lot of pain and a lot of fear. I had to get myself through the day. But my story has moved on and I am very lucky to say I’ve got the all clear.”

Alison’s latest exhibition features 30 paintings, about half of which were painted before she went on her pilgrimage. She said: “I found the work I did when I came back was more optimistic and happier.

“For my first exhibition I painted images of a wolf, the image for fear, the new image which has appeared is the red fish, an image for joy.”

Picture: by Kim Cessford. Alison Chandler, whose exhibition in Johnshaven is open daily from 1pm to 4pm until Sunday April 7.