Sketch book

Just to show I wasn't completely idle, here are couple of ten minute scribbles from my sketch book!

Obsession

A great week in Greece, but little in the way of painting done! I was so tied up with my new camera a Panasonic DMC-FS10, that the paints were hardly out of the bag. I became a little obsessed with doors and doorways and used this as an excuse to try different setting.

This little compact camera is perfect for idiots like me. Press the intelligent auto button and it thought of everything.

I collected labels from beer bottles and the like and will use all of this to make some small collages.

Stoupa is in the Messinian Gulf in Mani, South Peloponnese and more like Turkey in its architecture and colouring than the whitewashed houses of the Greek islands.
The countryside quite lush and it really deserved more than a week's sun worshiping! I had also intended to do some hill walking but the heat and the turquoise water got the better of me.

Off to Malta next week where I fully intend to be a little more focused!

Small works

Just to show two small pieces completed this week. Gold tissue paper on the first gives it a lovely shimmer. The second based on a fishy mosiac I saw in Tripoli.

Off to Greece now byeeeeeeeeee.

Wabi-Sabi

Another go!

The sound quality still isn't great and sometimes I sound like a man....not sure what that's all about!

Off on the next trip...taking the kids to Stoupa, Mainland Greece. Hoping to get some painting done.

Theme of the moment: Wabi-Sabi

This taken from Wiki:

wabi sabi is the material representation of Zen Buddhism. The idea being that being surrounded by natural, changing, unique objects helps us connect to our real world and escape potentially stressful distractions.

In one sense wabi sabi is a training where the student of wabi sabi learns to find the most simple objects interesting, fascinating and beautiful. Fading autumn leaves would be an example. Wabi sabi can change our perception of our world to the extent that a chip or crack in a vase makes it more interesting and give the object greater meditative value. Similarly materials that age such as bare wood, paper and fabric become more interesting as they exhibit changes that can be observed over time.