Creativity in Adversity

It’s hard to know where to begin… what a time it has been and will continue to be. Everything turned upside down. Turmoil where there was tranquillity, confusion where there was certainty.

Royal Free Hospital - BBC2 by Maxine Dodd

Every news bulletin brings a new story and a new facet to the crisis.

At the beginning of the year, my mum was admitted to Leicester Royal Infirmary and subsequently the Glenfield Hospital.

Hospital - Study Sheet 1 by Maxine Dodd

A helpless observer at her bedside, I watched the staff at work, at first in the Intensive Care Unit and later the recovery wards, where she stayed throughout January, before being discharged to The Lawns Nursing Home in Leicester.

The ICU staff were remarkable, as they calmly and methodically went through the process to stabilise her condition and to move her to the next stage of her recovery – which indeed they did.

Hospital, BBC 2 – Locking the cupboard by Maxine Dodd

Their work undertaken with great kindness, patience and gentle humour. Wonderful, lovely people and tender in years to my old eyes.

Hospital 2 by Maxine Dodd

Sitting as a helpless observer, I felt my instinct to capture them working with my pen and watercolours. I couldn’t help myself… in my head I followed the lines, the colours and movement.

by Maxine Dodd

Of course it wasn’t possible, but the image of the doctors and nurses working together has been with me ever since.

by Maxine Dodd