Next week, to coincide with the continued easing of lockdown, Castle Park Arts Centre will be opening four new exhibitions from the Eddisbury Artists, Jean Harley, Andrew Croughton and Sarah Morley.

Sarah's exhibition, Opening Up, stages a journey through her personal experience of the coronavirus pandemic, from the confinement of lockdown to the places and things she now looks forward to revisiting.

"The majority of this exhibition is work that I've been doing since March last year," Sarah says. "I felt that during lockdown I had a greater need to draw and paint, to express my emotions through art.

"Normally, I tend to paint semi-abstract landscapes, but this time I wanted people to really see the images I was putting forward, and how they reflected my feelings throughout the pandemic.

"I always say that I'm an expressive artist; I'm always trying to draw out something that underlies the superficial image."

"This period has felt quite dystopian," Sarah continues, "we have been deprived of contact, we haven't been allowed to go to our favourite places, and I think a lot of us have been contemplating our own mortality."

This experience of lockdown has led Sarah to create pieces shaped by its emotional upheaval, drawing and painting the strangeness, the worry, the longing but also the joy and hope, into her portraits, landscapes and still life pictures.

"Opening Up refers in part to the fact that things are finally 'opening up' now, but I also chose this title because I have done some more figurative work in this exhibition, which I don't normally do. So, I felt like it was opening me up a bit more as well," Sarah says.

"Whenever you do an exhibition as an artist, to a certain extent you are up there on the wall, and visitors are making decisions about what they think about you."

While normally, the abstraction of Sarah's landscapes would to some degree screen her thoughts and emotions from the gaze of her audience, this exhibition sharpens the focus on the artist herself.

"Opening Up is a little more personal," Sarah explains. "For example, at the beginning there is a drawing of me looking through some lilies, which reflects moments where I wondered if I too would catch Covid and how it would affect me.

"One of the other pieces, 'Jeff and his Grandson', shows a friend of a friend meeting his baby grandson again after such a long time."

By centring on friends and family, Sarah's paintings 'open up' the unique patterns and perspectives of her own life, tapering the sprawling magnitude of the pandemic into something more tangible and specific.

In one piece, 'Locked into What?', we are presented with a view of Sarah's sitting room during the first lockdown. Here, the lines of the furniture appear softened by familiarity and comfort, their palette flushed with the warm yellows and pinks of home life.

"That image shows our younger son sitting in our living room, back from university because of Covid," Sarah says. "It is an image of the positive side of our lockdown, having our son around when he wouldn't normally be home.

"There is also a picture of my daughter, who got married recently and had a little 'Covid wedding'. I painted a portrait of her in her bridal wear, and although she has a mask on it's not a sad painting at all.

"The exhibition will include these portraits, before moving on to a contemplation of the beauty to be found in lockdown, which often just involved the flowers in my house or garden.

There are also several pieces about normal aspects of life that are missing, such as commuting and going to the theatre. These are mainly charcoal drawings, similar to Sarah's drawing 'Chinese Arch, Chinese New Year, Manchester' which won an award as 'Very Highly Commended' at Castle Park Art Centre's last open exhibition.

"Then the paintings begin to explore the feeling of being able to get out a bit more, leading up to a final section of seascapes and landscapes, reflecting all the places I want to return to when I can.

"There are two paintings from a trip to Formby between lockdowns and work completed during this past year of memories of the sea and some other magnificent scenery here and abroad.

"So it's a circular view of how I've seen and experienced lockdown. I hope that people will enjoy that aspect of the exhibition and find its different perspectives interesting."

You will be able to visit Opening Up from Tuesday 18 May until Saturday 26 June in Castle Park Arts Centre's Gallery 3. Most of the pieces are for sale, along with some original drawings, prints and cards.

Further information about the exhibition can be found on the Castle Park Arts Centre website.

You can see more of Sarah's work on her website.