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Whilst working on paintings take time, the flowers in our garden seem to whizz through flower to seed in our very changeable & unseasonably cool weather. Still I would like to share a few beauties..
This 1st is a peony bloom from a few weeks ago - a plant my Mum subdivided from an old one at the house where I grew up, north of London. It then lived at Mum's next home nearby for some years. Then it came here to such a different climate about 3 years ago. It just survived 2 very hard winters, & after this last milder one has given us a first flower since its arrival, which felt even more epic when Mum told me it was possibly planted by my great-grandmother ! Praise to the tenacity of this beautiful plant which has felt able to flower again at last ...
The other is a poppy - we have not had success with these either til this year - & I feel that this is the first year that we really have a proper garden, & the Spirits of the place have settled after all the changes after we moved here. Thank you to all who have helped us reach this point, both human friends & Spirit helpers...
I think this poppy's shapes & colours are so fabulous at every stage of its growth :-)
I took this photo a few years ago , its of part of our pond. I like the way it has become its own surreal world in the image. I just found it again, & it occurs to me that it follows on well from my previous post. How many layers are there here ??? How many worlds ???
It makes me think of the layers of the 3 worlds shamans have walked in for longer than we know...
Its good to let our awareness keep expanding...
This is the 7th painting in my series inspired by the land here where I live - the others have all been entered in this blog. This one started with drawing onto the canvas the shapes that I saw up in the middle of our top field last summer. The canvas waited quietly in the studio for some months, then I put a photo of it onto my ipad, & drawing over that created this 1st version :-
Then last week I finally came to painting it - well I didnt want just to repeat myself, & also I worked in acrylics , unlike the preceding oil paintings, so it changed .. I enjoyed the different pace, no long careful mixing of colours, the limitation/ attraction of paint drying quickly.. And some surprises as always. The painting travels round the edges of the canvas, as with most of my paintings.
The title both reminds me of the literal place, & also that I have experienced shamanic ceremonial work up there, when I and the place have been open to other levels of activity that often remain unseen..
So all blessings & thanks to the place and the Spirits.
This ipad drawing is called SUN EARTH LIGHT LOVE
I drew it in response to thinking of that moment at dawn when the Sun arrives over the horizon & HITS you with it's light, with its love & energy...
I have submitted it to the website of a wonderful campaign gathering images for illustrations to get people to write Love Letters to the Earth, not just cos it is Valentine's day today, but to express how much each of us cares for the Earth in the run up to the next Earth Summit in Rio. This is highlighting & raising awareness about inspiring work being done by a wonderful barrister called Polly Higgins to get the United Nations to recognise Ecocide as the 5th crime against Peace.
I recommend having a look at all the artists' work from all over the world there, & writing a letter ..
go for it !!
The full title of this painting is actually written through the canvas .. whereby hangs a story.. I thought myself really stuck with this one, it was hanging in my studio for ages & I knew it wasn't right & yet couldn't see what it needed. The answer came in a conversation with someone else who commented on sitting in our conservatory last summer & enjoying hearing the trees. Mmmm ... HEARING them... why ..?.. The penny dropped very soon after & made a link for me which became the title -
LISTEN TO THE TREES, THEY HOLD OUR DREAMS
So I painted the text into the painting, each word in a different place. here are a couple of close-ups
HAPPY NEW YEAR !!! BLESSINGS ALL .. Its been a while .. and yes I have joined the ranks of ipad owners. Its quite a surprise, since I have not been attracted to pursuing my art digitally before, but when I asked my Spirit helpers last autumn for guidance about my artwork, they were unequivocal - use an ipad.
Well I am enjoying it. I haven't moved beyond the classic 'brushes' app yet, I know which ones I want to explore next, but there is so much to try out just within the permutations of this one app for the time being. As you can see below, I am very absorbed in building up textures , as well as the playfulness the instantaneous palette of lovely colours brings. There are things I cant do with it, of course, but having to work within certain constrictions is often inspiring ..
So thank you, Spirits, this technology has given my drawing a much needed shot in the arm, as well as being an interesting way to try things out for actual paintings.
Here are 5 examples, I don't really know whether to call them drawings or paintings. I would love to know what anyone thinks who reads this - see my email address at the side of this blog, or leave a comment..
From a friend's comment this is called "Woolly Jumpers & Celandines"
It came in the doing..
"Riverbank 2" - In this one I was thinking back to walking in a valley in the Cairngorms last autumn
"Stone Movement " - These textures & patterns came from sitting with a stone, a palm sized pebble, which sits comfortably in my hand. It called out to me on a local beach where lots of water was pouring over the sands to reach the sea. It is teaching me a lot.
"Arriving / Leaving" - This one is an image of the feeling of energy leaving me during shamanic work .. some is leaving, & other energy is arriving..
"Revealed " - A young tree which is teaching me a lot at the moment was suddenly caught in my torch beam on a dark cloudy night recently. Our ongoing conversation is private, but perhaps this drawing conveys something of that moment of communication.
Its been a while since i posted here, & i find more options, like writing in these colours .. in fact I like this one even better. Especially as I want to share a short sequence of photos I took with my mobile down on the beach yesterday, these blues feel right.
October brought rich changes & deep ceremony to us here. Blessing the shamanic work we do, & the place, the ripples continue to spread.
Then a change of gear - happy time with family in Oxford including outstanding music at the Oxford Lieder festival. A recital by Thomas Allen being one of the musical highlights of my life - quite exceptional - deep, moving, exilerating, funny, being in the presence of a master .
And now November.. after some of those fluey achy days I'm finding my way back to the level of excercise I enjoy, no steep walks yet, but that nourishing from pottering at the edge of the sea.
How life changes us, yet trusting my Spirit Helpers reconnects me again & again . May we each find our right way to allow our hearts to keep opening to receive & give light, again & again.
