"It's almost like a therapeutic thing", says Gardner on her new hobby.
With all the cricketing activities suspended for an indefinite amount of time due to the ongoing Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, cricketers around the world are delving into new hobbies amid the lockdown and Australia Women all-rounder Ashleigh Gardner is no different.
As the ongoing global pandemic forced the entire world to confined to home, many cricketers have been trying different activities besides social media live sessions to kill the time during the COVID-19 lockdown.
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Gardner, Australia’s 2020 ICC Women’s T20 World Cup-winning all-rounder, has decided to try her hand at painting to stave off boredom during the self-isolation period and even she is getting considerable success with her indigenous style of dot painting.
I am by no means an artist, but I was pretty stoked with what I created for @mozzie21 ????
A post shared by Ashleigh Gardner (@ashleigh_gardner97) on
As per reports in ESPNCricinfo, Gardner stated: “I said to my mum that going into lockdown, I am going to need a hobby to do because I know how bored I get easily and I thought why not painting. Having an aboriginal background, I have a connection with that and people have said while I am not a natural artist it is in my blood. It's pretty cool that people even like my work, to be honest.”
The all-rounder has made few pieces for her friends, including Mel Jones, Moises Henriques and Nicole Bolton for the past few weeks, and she was happy to know the fact that people are loving her work.
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She added, “When I first started doing it, I didn't think anything was going to come out of it. I just did a little piece and put it on social media and it got a little bit of traction which was quite funny because I'm nowhere near being an artist. I did a piece for Moises Henriques and when I posted that I had a lot of people asking for pieces and it blew me away. People are actually wanting my work.”
Plenty of time on my hands these days to create another piece ????
A post shared by Ashleigh Gardner (@ashleigh_gardner97) on
The 23-year-old further revealed that the latest hobby she has developed in order to enable herself to not feel uncertainty in life during this time of crisis across the globe.
Gardner signed off by saying, “It's almost like a therapeutic thing. It's so different from my normal life which is why I think I have enjoyed it. For so long, I have had a schedule and been told what to do day-to-day and this is something I can do off my own back. It's quite relaxing, you need to concentrate to make sure you don't ruin it but I put some music on and get painting.”
(With ESPNCricinfo Inputs)