John Cloake

Lifespans, watercolour, 29.5 x 21cm (NFS)

These artworks are part of a series made while the artist was receiving chemotherapy and surgery for Pancreatic Cancer at Milton Keynes University Hospital and the Churchill Hospital in Oxford.

“My heightened awareness of life, provoked by having cancer, presented opportunities to recognise how all elements of the natural world, including humans, are connected.  

Sharpened Senses, Watercolour, 28 x 21cm (NFS)

The increased risk of infection as a side-effect of chemotherapy means that I have been in a form self-isolation since last summer.  Walking in the woods has been hugely sustaining. Unexpectedly, I have found that the threat to my existence has acutely sharpened my appreciation of large and tiny details of nature. A bittersweet bonus to illness.  

In the build up to surgery I had imagined all the people and places that would assist my recovery.  However, we are fortunate in having a garden full of living things plant and animal. Seeking them out again has greatly off-set the frustrations of the Covid-19 lockdown.” [John Cloake]