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!
Wholeness.
How beautiful the earth is today. How gentle. It’s a gift, a mother’s love. The blooming honeysuckle, the gentlest of breeze and soft soft sunlight. There is a peaceful, pervading stillness, a self contained quiet that is persuasive, leading me into absolute silence and being. No thoughts, no wishes, no dreams. Just pure being and unfolding under this warmth. It makes me want to come back to myself, to gather all those frayed, tattered bits and pieces that constitute my person and, just once, hold them tight to my chest with all the strength in my body, and then, to let them go into this light, so they can fall, softly, gently into place, making me whole once again.
Harmony.
Of soul, of spirit.
With nature, with self.
It’s a long and arduous walk uphill and I am still at the base, looking up, the bright sun in my eyes. But if knowledge and awareness are half the battle, then I am half way up. I hope to walk on, consciously shedding the unwanted weight of self-doubt, of superfluous thoughts and needs, of judgements and self-righteousness, to empty, empty, empty all that makes me blind to the beauty of this hill, the flowers growing there, and the cool shelter of trees. The running brook and it’s cold sweet water. The birds and the foxes. To emerge from the fog, the dark cloud of self-absorption into clarity, into light.
It’s a long walk uphill. I will not be done in this lifetime, or possibly the next. But I have taken the first step, and maybe that is all I will achieve in this lifetime, but hey, it is a step forward, and that gives me hope.
Stars
Strewn along winding paths,
long past the hour of repose,
Look at what the stars have left behind
for us mortal souls…
the very essence of their likeness,
in white lace and yellow frill,
earthbound and fragile,
but somehow brighter still.
Sketching
Oh this thing called sketching…
I am so in awe of all the sketch artists that put so much life and emotion into their sketches. Who make their characters come alive on paper. It’s like magic to me.
Some day, some day, with tons of practise maybe…
Islands
Islands. Acrylics on Canvas. 12″ x 12″
Every flower is an island of decadent sweetness to a winged honey seeker.
Lemon drops.
It was so difficult to come back into the sheltered cool of the house. The sun is so bright and happy today, after days of gloomy grey. I just wanted to sit out there, with the sun on my back, melting melting, simply looking at everything, and nothing. A slow soft gaze without purpose, repose-ful. Days like these fill up the soul brimful of light.
Nowhere to go, nowhere to be, except to stay in this light, bathing in it’s warmth.
Look at these happy campers. Just thrilled, I am sure, to feel the sun on their bright little faces. Tiny lemon drops of pure joy.
