Struck down, but aftermath is striking

Jul 8 2008 by Vicky Anderson, Liverpool Daily Post

A FORMER teacher who had never painted before being diagnosed with a debilitating illness is celebrating her first year as an artist with a new exhibition.

Madelaina Murthwaite is using the exhibition, Beauty Versus the Beast, to raise awareness of fibromyalgia.

A former teacher at a Wirral grammar school, Murthwaite was forced to abandon her career after being struck down by what was initially a mystery illness, in February, 2007.

“I never knew I could paint. I had never done it before. I’d never had time to even think about art with my job,” she said.

At its worst, the chronic muscle pain and fatigue were so bad, she could not use her arms.

She began to paint by chance, after learning to use a digital camera and forcing herself through the pain to copy from the pictures.

“It was an epiphany. I couldn’t hold a pen and write, but a brush was totally different because it didn’t have to be meticulous.

“I had to push myself – I had to keep stopping and starting, and I was exhausted. I started to build up a little portfolio. I would take pic-tures of animals off the TV, starting out small-scale and moving onto bigger pieces.”

Soon, an art tutor contact told her she had a natural ability for portraiture – as can be seen in her paintings on display of celebrities including The Beatles, Ronaldo and George Best.

A portrait of Ringo Starr was snapped up when it went on display at the Academy of Arts as part of last summer’s Come Together exhibition, and now Murthwaite returns with her first solo exhibi-tion to mark a year as an artist.

She has recently begun to work figuratively, creating playful yet political pieces, and has been studying students at Liverpool Theatre School for a series of dance themed paintings.

“I would really love a celebrity to get involved to help raise aware-ness of fibromyalgia,” she says.

Beauty Versus the Beast is at the Liverpool Academy of Arts, on Seel Street, until Friday from noon-4pm.

Paintings, prints and T-shirts are for sale in aid of Merseyside and Wirral Fibromyalgia Group.

After that, her work will be at the Art Wars exhibition, to be held at Liver House, 96, Bold St, Aug 1-15.

vickyanderson@dailypost.co.uk