An Easter Meditation

LISTENING

The sound of each foot connecting with the ground

13 bird songs

CROW DUCK BLACKBIRD ROBIN WOODPECKER

MAGPIE TIT FINCH PHEASANT PIGEON GOOSE WREN

JAY

the flap flopping of wellingtons against bare legs

Pondering Hoarding

Hoarding, we all hoard don't we? Physical stuff, the mountains of no longer used things we can't bare to throw away. What about all those 'ideas' and beliefs we hoard? All that mumbo jumbo that we hang onto for dear life, the baggage that we think defines us.
I have been pondering this notion of hoarding all week !

Mostly because it was my daughter's 21st birthday yesterday and I decided to give her, amongst other things,  a selection of jewellery that had been given to me on my 21st birthday. These items had been stashed away in a campaign box for at least 25 years, along with semi precious jewels my brother had brought back from India, ( I had long forgotten to have them made into something wearable)  a letter from my father when I was at school, a cigarette box of  cowry shells collected on a beach in Ireland. A photo booth pic of me with very short platinum blond hair, a Victorian mother of pearl cigarette holder and many other unlooked at trinkets. Daughter can sell them if she wants, to subsidise a trip to India, I don't need to hold onto them any more.

What about beliefs? preconceived ideas? do I need those any more? Does your mind look like our barn, full of clutter?
Buddhists feel that we should walk our path on this earth and when we leave...leave no trace. We are all so caught up in this idea that we should not be forgotten. Everyone wants to leave a mark....'don't forget me, I was important'....
Filling in the Census a few weeks ago, I pondered the religion question. What am I ? Christian?, Buddhist? I don't know. So I didn't put anything..... 'Now' ist, possibly, 'this moment' ist ....maybe !    The problem comes when the tag 'ist' or 'ism' is put onto a word.  It's suddenly weighted down with baggage, beliefs. Ideals. We become entangled with rules and regulations. Hmmm.

Anyway....my point is.... we do the same with art. We become entangled with our notions of what our art should look like. Frightened to stray far from the norm.
Not knowing is liberation.    Aaaaahh !

Practising what I preach

A sunny day in the studio, left handed painting !

Consciously streaming!

Another day, another workshop, sadly the last in this session of group days. Though I am available for extra days (min 2 people, see the side bar for details). Some really lovely expressive painting was produced today and again hugely varied.

Gilly, following the brief of layering, worked on this piece for a couple of hours. Ever increasing the complexity of texture and rhythm. The painting changed hugely over the time it was worked on, starting out as a still life, and ending up as an amazingly complex stream of consciousness. We are all unique filters through which experiences are processed, and it's a pleasure to witness this!

Vivienne experimented with texture by working into wet paint.

...and Pauline produced a lovely composition, incorporating newsprint and Chinese characters, adding interest. The paper had been primed using ordinary house emulsion, this gave a really interesting grainy base for the charcoal. Which goes to show even the cheapest of materials can be used to great effect.