Summer glimpses.

Summer has been lovely. All the walks in the woods, the time spent wandering aimlessly, for a while, just looking, peering into the faces of flowers, the dark edges of ponds, the soft plop, plop of mysterious creatures coming up for air, or food perhaps. Reading poetry there, and beauty of course. The silence and the incessant chirping, all falling with equal grace upon the eager, grateful ears that like to hear nothing and everything, that are married to sound and silence with equal fervor. The rising and softly falling away of images, day dreams. Some known, others unknown. Strange yet strangely familiar. All this and so much more.

Summer has been so lovely.

 

 

This riot…

18″ x 24″ Acrylics on Canvas

This riot we call flowers.

Rosebuds in tea.

This sweet little bud that flavored my tea. Thank you for granting me a moment of grace, for soothing my eyes, for softening my heart with your sweetness. There is so much to be said for thanking the food on our table. For taking a moment to be grateful for the sustenance, for this gift of nature that was given freely. I am saddened that I have moved away from it. I am saddened that I take it for granted and only praise the colour or the pretty picture that it makes. Isn’t true mindfulness understanding the wholeness of the gift of the moment? Looking beyond what we gain from it?

As an adult, I have always shied away from plucking flowers and leaves. I enjoy them so much more on the trees and plants, their natural home. The only time I buy flowers is when we have a pooja, a religious ceremony, where we offer fruits and flowers to the deities. I remember absolutely sobbing when the people we hired to do our driveway cut the beautifully arching honeysuckle to make room for their truck. I remember the bewildered worker calling his boss to inform him about the crazy lady crying over the honeysuckle. Poor man! But I couldn’t help it, and I wouldn’t be exaggerating if I say that I felt the pain physically. I feel it still. I know it’s deeply hypocritical of me because I do eat fruits and vegetables plucked from vines and trees, but there it is. I guess I am quirky that way. 😛

But one thing I do hope to do from now on. Express my profound gratitude for every meal and morsel. It is the least I can do.

Walks

I always love the summer days when we forego solid gym work for a walk in the woods. It feels like a mini holiday. A small breakaway. Fingers tracing the rustling green, glad hearts.

There were so many bunnies. Ears twitching, noses in the air, mouths full of moist green grass. Such sweet, gentle creatures. I wanted to hold one, or two, but they didn’t seem too wild about the idea, disappearing into the tall grass lickety-split.

And then, the butterflies, and the flowers….

If only I could make a bouquet of these days, I would place them in every room, a burst of light and warmth for the coming cold winter days and nights.

 

In passing

this little being,
curl and filigree,
ignoring the sacrilege
of my loud clumsy step,
the alien thrust of my body
in the midst of all that is old,
so very old,
said, with the sweetest of whispers,
hail stranger,
whither thou goest…
to which I could but reply,
in circles, dear friend, in circles.

Re-connect.

After a long time, paint on my fingers.
I have always been a reader, never without the essence of another story running in parallel with my own. Except for a few months in the immediate past where I just couldn’t. I don’t know why. And I have never felt so disconnected with my self. So adrift and empty. But thankfully, this phase has passed and I have been reading voraciously again. Shirley by Charlotte Bronte, Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Journal of a solitude by May Sarton, My cousin Rachel by Daphne du Maurier, just to name a few. It feels insanely good. So much so that I have devoted every spare moment to reading thus neglecting my painting. But that, too, has passed and I could paint again yesterday. Yippee!! So, here’s to getting back into the groove! To painting, reading, creating, to immersing oneself in the little things.

Here’s to feeling connected!

RE-Worked.

Re-worked an older one. It needed a bit of a pick me up. A bit of a freshening, airing, a brightness.
*The green in the photo is slightly greener than on the canvas.
Acrylics on Canvas
20″ x 16″
Available

Push and Pull

What is this, this
push and pull,
this need to shut everything down,
to walk away, to sit
under a tree,
until I become long as
a shadow
and creepers think
nothing of me
but a place to lay down roots.
And then, there is
that tremulous flower opening
it’s lips, thirsty for life
and hungry for a bee,
and I want to rush back
to my paper and holding
a pen,
share it, share all this,
this joy called life.

New piece.

Started a new piece yesterday. There is always that thrill and slight trepidation of starting a new painting. That initial burst of energy as one puts colours down on the canvas in a willy nilly fashion, looking, out of the corner of the eye, for something to show up, to peak one’s interest. That AHA moment!

And it did. The shape of his head. But it is not finished yet. The painting is asking for more and I do not know yet what that something is. So, I will be in my little room that I call my studio and work on solving this little mystery. Hope it leads me somewhere good.

 

Oils!

Sometimes, you just gotta jump in!! I bought some oil paints!

Just a few basic colours to play with.

I have always been drawn to oil paintings. The vibrancy of colour, the depth. They seem so much more richer and complex. But I have always been intimated by them, too. I lack the discipline required to work with them. Besides, the way I paint is not very conducive to working with oil paints because oil paints stay wet longer than acrylics which does not work for my layer and texture building process (if I can call the way I paint a process). I have no doubt it will eventually all turn into brown mush. But then, you know, you never know till you try…so I thought, what the hey, YOLO!, and jumped in with both feet!

And guess what, I really, really enjoyed it! It’s such a different world! So meditative and deliberate and intense! I loved the slow movement of thought and action. The balance between being deliberate and organic.

Time to get more colours, me thinks!