Rediscovering my creativity in midlife
After dropping out of college at 19, Stacey Duguid buried her art dreams deep inside. In her mid-40s she picked up a paintbrush again and it changed her life
The teachers, my best mate, even the dinner ladies, whenever I went ‘missing’ at secondary school (otherwise known as ‘skiving maths’), they knew where to find me. Wearing paint-splattered denim dungarees, as inspired by Beatrice Dalle in the film Betty Blue (I even had the same black bobbed hair, minus the eye gouging), I spent hours tucked away in the art department. A passionate painter; highly motivated and driven to get into a good art school, my teachers just sort of left me to it.
I started life drawing classes at 16, travelling eight miles to Edinburgh College of Art on the bus every Tuesday night. It was my paternal grandmother who first inspired me to paint. In a hard-to-find corner of her bedroom, nestled amongst a sea of ruffles and frothy frills, of floral curtains, ditzy print cushions and patchwork bedding, was a small easel, located by the window for the right light. On a nearby …