Shire Hill
 Old man on the ward 1992 Oil on canvas 102cm x 61cm 40″ x 24″ |
 The corridor 1993 Oil on canvas 122cm x 183cm 48″ x 72″ |
 Woman with zimmer frame 1993 Oil on canvas 127cm x 102cm 50″ x 40″ |
| Almost at the very moment of the birth of my first child I felt an immediate and instinctive knowledge fall upon me – an awareness of my place, and that of my child, within the cycle of life; the reality of a new life entering the world summoned up an almost palpable realisation of my own mortality and the fragility of existence itself.Perhaps as a means of coming to terms with this, I deliberately decided to spend some time working within a geriatric unit at Shire Hill Hospital in Glossop. A large amount of time was spent talking, reassuring and drawing the men and women I found there. I hope the paintings speak for themselves; as I was celebrating my son Max learning to walk, so I was witnessing the profound care and skill of the nurse helping an elderly patient re-learning after a stroke the very skills that she too had once learned so many years before. – Ghislaine Howard |
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