Just called in to say hello

Hi, I'm Rachel, though I'm generally known online as Bliss. I've been lurking around here for a week or so, and finally thought I'd join in the fun. I'm very new to painting - my work so far consists of a sketch of the Humber Bridge, a lot of 'practice' skies, and attempts at a few buildings. My last foray into painting (not very well) was 25+ years ago at teacher training college. My inspiration to give it a try again and learn how to do it properly was my mum, who died a few weeks ago. I've been caring for her along with my dad for the last 6 months, and a few days after her funeral when I was trying to tidy up all her medication etc, I found a pad of cheap watercolour paper that she'd been using for a largely abstract collection of painting using various media that she'd done over the last few months. She'd named and dated all of them and on many she'd put a note about the inspiration for it. I didn't realise she'd been doing them, but all I can think is that she did them when I was working (my parents live with me, and though I work part time (I long ago ditched teaching and went into local government), I work mainly from home, only going into the office occasionally for meetings etc, which was a godsend while mum was so ill). Anyhow, back to finding her paintings, I also found the "artist's box" I'd bought her for Christmas a couple of years ago that she'd asked for - it has watercolours, oils, acrylics, watercolour pencils, pastels etc. They're not the greatest quality and well past their best, but there were some things like the pencils I thought were still usable. Though I'm back at work now after a few weeks off, I felt I needed something to keep me occupied so I bought myself some watercolours and a few brushes. Painting's somewhat interesting for me because I'm a wheelchair user so my viewpoint's rather fixed, and due to a weird neurological condition I have, I get blurred and double vision. Seeing just one image of something takes a lot of concentration, so I can only paint for short spells at a time, but I'm looking forward to learning more about watercolour painting and hopefully improving! Rachel (Bliss)