Red Gloves & Ice Box

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This Amish lad was on his way home from school, carrying his lunchbox - an icebox from Walmart. The megastore is actually a really common place to see Amish people, and I'm not sure how that fits in with the whole 'shunning of modern life' ideology. Anyway, it makes for a bizarre vision of culture clashes seeing kids wandering around the ultra modern brightly lit store wearing big hats. home-made clothes and massive wellies. I have a hard time not gawking, as I'm sure many outsiders do. I want to be respectful, but at the same time I'm so curious and drawn to them - as an artist the uniqueness of the situation is tantalisingly inspiring.

I have a book called 'Among the Amish' by the Welsh artist Kieth Bowen, and it's amazing. He spent a few summers working with an Amish community and they allowed him to paint them in their most intimate lives. I'd like to try that sometime - but our visits to the East coast are so brief....maybe one day.

Tahoe Quarterly Magazine

Thankyou Tahoe Quarterly for writing an article about me in your current Winter Edition!

Horsing around

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Work is a big part of the Amish lifestyle, since the conveniences of modern life are shunned, everything has to be done by hand. From a young age, Amish children work the fields, help build houses, sew, cook and repair. It's hard to imagine kids in our urban society being willing to roll up their sleeves and muck in at 3am when the cows need milking. It was inspiring then, to see that the kids still have that youthful playfulness, so innocent and energetic - it seems we grow up too fast in a world where everything is so easily available to us through the internet, TV, and 'virtual' games where we don't even have to stand up to pretend we're shooting a gun, or riding a skateboard, or dancing, or playing a guitar. What happened to making your own fun?

Amish Boy with Sled

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I thought this little boy was the sweetest I've ever seen, with his blonde hair sticking out from under his black hat, and his big wellies clunking through the snow.I'm not sure where he was intending to use his sled though - Pennsylvania is pretty flat!

Amish Children

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This little oil study is inspired by my recent trip to Pennsylvania to visit my husband's family over Christmas. There is a large Amish community there, so you see them a lot. The Amish people shun most of the conveniences of modern life such as electricity and cars, and they also shun any form of vanity such as photographs, believing that pride is a sin which should be avoided - even family pride. This is why I have given them blank faces. From an artistic point of view this actually emphasises the body language, and I was intrigued by the visual dialogue you can create when no facial expression or eye contact is available. I'm a people watcher by nature, so I'm always mentally sketching when I'm in public places.

Pennsylvannia

I spent Christmas and New Year with my husband and his family in Pennsylvannia - if you've visited my website (www.shelleyhocknell.com)you will have seen my paintings of the Amish people who live in the countryside near the Zentner's. I'm doing more oils of them today, so I'll upload them from tomorrow when I'm happy with them. For now here's a little watercolour sketch I did between snow showers there. It's a shame I haven't been able to visit Pennsylvannia in the summertime yet, when all the trees have leaves and the flowers are blooming. The landscape does have a unique charm at this time of year though, in a stark, understated way. The umbers, ochres and siennas are evocative of old sepia photographs, wrinkled and curling at the edges.

Mulled Wine & Mince Pies

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A funny thing about living in a country I didn't grow up in, is the unexpected onset of nostalgia. I've never been patriotic, or even that enthusiastic about Britain, especially Wales - but now I'm away... wow there's so many silly little things I miss, and I find myself increasingly drawn to seek out all things British. I listen to BBC Radio over the internet all day while I'm painting, and recently heard a live session with a very talented young singer called Duffy. I was even more drawn in when she said she was from Nefyn, quite near where I come from, and her lilting Welsh accent just hypnotised me. I watched the video to her new song on Youtube, my new favourite place to watch British TV shows, and it just captures so well the Wales I remember:



Dark, and kind of depressing really - but very beautiful in its way too. There's something very earthy and authentic about Wales, and it's just steeped in ancient history the way America isn't.

Anyway, Mulled wine & mince pies remind me of Christmas in Wales. Forgetting the fact that I usually eat so many of these that I'm sick of them by December 25th, I do love them. I made my own this year for the first time, and I'm surprised to report that they came out completely edible and really quite nice.