The Wondabrella

Hello good people this is my painting entitled 'The Wondabrella' as you can see.

Ever since i was a little girl I have been fascinated with umbrellas - you would be surprised to find though that i rarely buy them these days - i only have the obligatory one or two - although I have to say that I have a rather smart checked one which I bought in Spain. Still it was touch and go that i would get one that day. it was pouring with rain, it was after all a rather dreary February day in the south of Spain, and I did not know a shop where i could buy one so I asked a man who was standing at the doorway of our local bar (Pedro's wonderful emporium). Now my Spanish is severely limited (although I am working on it) so I asked him in my best Spanish "Donde comer me una Paragua" he looked rather surprised i must say, and I am certain that Spanish speakers among you are also splitting your sides at this time. Rethinking the situation I suddenly realised my mistake. "Oh no! i said i mean comprar! Donde comprar me una Paragua. for those who do not speak Spanish - like me - comprar means buy, that is "where can I buy an umbrella?" Comer means EAT! Do the translation hehehe!

But i digress. I think I was talking about being a little girl and loving umbrellas. When i was really little my mother always took us along to annual bazaars and jumble sales. She would give me a great big brown penny to spend and i would dart off to look for things of interest. Things of interest at that time were invariably either things that glittered eg jewellery or umbrellas. I struck many a deal for an umbrella, whether broken or otherwise, it never seemed to matter much. usually the stallholder was so amused that a small girl would want an umbrella that they usually gave them to me for nothing. I used to be able to bag quite a bargain in those days - but bagging bargains is another story altogether - ask my better half.

Now - the Wondabrella - this is a sort of wonderful forest canopy. it is a little comment on rain forests and the importance thereof as well.

It is a little bit of fantasy also and there is the wonder of rain and the forest and a little bit of the symmetry and beauty of nature

I have also made a model for a medal based on this theme but have not yet got a chance to cast it. One thing leads on to another in art.

Rock River

What an exciting day!

The weather has been absolutely beautiful.  Sunny and hot but with a nice little breeze which keeps everything nice and fresh.

i went out this morning to get photos of those Cruisers - The harbour was soooo busy!  I love that.  Not only the boats, cruisers and ferries on the water but all the tourists with their cameras darting off while on shore to get photos of the 'Old Stavanger' and all the locals buying fish and prawns off the trawlers, shopping in the market and generally having a good look at the big boats.  You cannot help but be impressed by them.

I got some photos but it was more difficult than usual because they were all squished into a small area and hard to isolate in the frame.

i thought that this drawing/painting was the most appropriate to post today.  it is called Rock river and is of course primarily about rock walls and trees but also contains traces of a child who has been busy using his or her imagination to make a river of the wall in the absence of a stream or a puddle.  

I like that - I like the way children can make an ocean or a river or a mountain out of the most simple and humble everyday objects.  In this instance, the wall is the choppy sea and the paper boat is perhaps a trawler or a cruiser or a battleship dancing up and down on the waves.

This is watercolour and pen and ink on Fabriano and is approximately A4 format.  I really like this picture.

A bright and sunny morning

The sun has got his hat on this morning.  I, however, am a bit slower today.  

There are three cruisers in the harbour today also so i will have to go down and take a look before I do anything else especially as the first of them will be sailing out again at 12.30.

I can see the harbour from my kitchen window and watched the third one sailing in a bit earlier on while I was making coffee.  It is very exciting living here - there is constant change and comings and goings on the water - Not to mention the turning of the seasons and the changeable weather.

I need to tweak the photos of my work before I can post them so it will probably be later this afternoon or evening before i get those up - i hope you will check back for a look then.

Leaving

Up at the ungodly hour of 4.00 a.m. this morning to see my man off on the Flybus.  I walked him down to the Fiskepiren and waved him goodbye.  He is off home for the weekend and i am all alone.  So as i was up - although feeling a bit bleary - I thought i would add the next bit to my blogfolio.

This is called 'Leaving' which is my first real foray into digital art.  I think it needs a bit more tweaking and I am not certain how one makes proper digital prints to make it a piece of art I can sell as opposed to something that I just look at on my computer.   I need to find out a bit more about resolution and print and paper quality, but the picture is there.

I like the transparency of this image because of course this is a mythical figure only alive, perhaps, in our imaginations.  So she is barely there and yet she is a big part of the forest too, bound with it and growing.

The photo alone - taken in the woody area around the Mostavnet lake in Stavanger - is a wonderful sight.  It was this forest Cathedral that inspired me to make this image as well as the painting in my previous posting.

So, very aptly, this picture is posted here on the morning that my beloved is leaving me - only temporarily mind.  So the upside of goodbye kisses is - that when he returns, when he unleaves me, it will be all the sweeter to kiss him hello again :-)

Cathedral - November

Good Morning Art Lovers,

This is today's painting - although as i look at it now the colours look a bit washed out in this image.  Roll on my new camera!  Try to think of it in really rich autumnal colours orange, yellow, browns and purples.  Regal!

This painting as the name suggests shows the majesty of the natural world juxtaposed with man-made wonders.

Forests are such incredible places and i have a fascination with these original churches and places of worship.  

And i do worship at the altar of nature and the natural world.  The wonder of a damp and dark forest on a soft autumn day.  The smell of mould and composting leaves, the sounds of cracking twigs and muffled footsteps.  The sudden find of weird mushrooms and funghi, hidden and found.  

Then there is the wonder of the open sea.  Standing on the shore and watching the strength of the waves as they roll on and on and imagining the depth of the ocean and the unbelievable pressure down, way down, beneath the surface.

The wonder of the stars - looking up at the night sky and trying to count them hehehe!  And feeling sooooo insignificant - just a grain of sand in the grand scheme of things.  It certainly puts things into perspective.

It helps to keep you humble.  Me, it helps to keep me humble.

But then I have to keep on trying in my own small way to make my time here count for something.  And it does - even though I am a grain of sand I am an individual grain, like a fingerprint - there is only one me and I have the freedom and will to try to live my life as well as I can.  Just like everyone else.  And maybe, just maybe, make a difference.

Oh heavens! I do go on!  That is enough for a Wednesday morning - i really only wanted to show you my painting - and i hope you like it.

Tender Footfall on the Forest Canopy

I am painting at the moment but decided that i would drop another picture into my blog - because i have a fair few more to drop in there.

This one is my first proper painting of a Metamoth.  

A Metamoth is a chymeric creature/person who crops up quite often in my work practice.  Thinking aloud i should really put together a full Metamoth post.  Hmmm?  that is something to work out - it could include the meaning and symbolism of Metamoth so that everyone would know who she is.  Not right now though.  Right now i am just posting this for you to look at.  

it is a painting of the courtship of Metamoth the father and the beautiful dryad, the mother.   What more is there to say about it - Courtship is courtship.  they are falling in love and he is showing her his tender caring side and he will court her with flowers and leaves and wonderful things that he finds in the forest.  But that is a whole other story for another day.

I am afraid the painting is not going that well for me today - not that this is unusual.  i find painting quite difficult and no matter what I am doing, whether it is a sculpture, painting or print there is a moment in its creation when i reach a low and i think that it is never going to amount to anything!  At those times the paintbrushes or wax tools sometimes go flying across the table and I get up and stomp around the apartment swearing like a sailor.

What i have tried to do today is introduce a bit more drawing into my painting - one of the problems in the composition were large blank areas that really had nothing to prove so I have filled them up with leaves and berries to improve the composition - oh dear I am probably wetting your appetite for my latest painting, but I am not ready to show it yet and do not want opinions on it in its unfinished state - it is something for me to work out and work through.  But I thank you anyway for your concern.

So that is enough - I will return to the painting - i would go for a brisk walk which is very good for the temper only it is raining quite heavily today and I really do not fancy getting wet.  So i will not do that.

Janus as the Source

Obviously this is a representation of the month of January.
Janus is the god of the new year - with two faces one looking backward towards the old year and the other looking forward. This painting is full of symbolism from bridges to running water and Carp. Not to mention, briars, hair, snowdrops and doorways!
As a learning experience I certainly think that the use of colour is far better than in my first painting (December) they are brighter and clearer so i was very happy with the results. Obviously, being severely self critical, there are things that I would like to improve, but on the whole I thought it was definitely a step forward.
I hope you enjoy it!

Winter Heartbeat

This is my first 'real' painting. it is a watercolour painting on a canvas dimensions 80x60cm. i realise that this is an untraditional method of working, but i like the way the paint responds on the canvas - it is a bit easier than watercolour on paper but has its own challenges. This painting is finished and just awaiting a varnishing which should enrich the colours.

I began a series of 12 paintings in November with this one, which is representative of the month of December. My initial idea was to do a full series of paintings each one depicting a narrative about the particular month. I had three of these completed and then went off on a bit of a tangent. However, this does not worry me unduly as i know that really it was just a stepping off point. I have diversified into, illustration, linocuts (which i cannot print at the moment because i am lacking basic equipment and materials - but this is coming soon), various smaller watercolour paintings on paper, two medals which i have submitted to the British Art Medal Society for approval for one or both as a commissioned medal in the next few months and also one little sculpture of 'metamoth'.

there will be more about Metamoth in subsequent postings.

and i will endeavour to finish the series of 'the year in months' as well. But for now this is December or Winter's Heartbeat. I do not think it needs much explanation and leave it up to the viewer to find things about it that are intriguing and beautiful as they may wish.

The first day of the rest of my life

Good Morning,

Today i promised to enclose the first images of new work.

Here they come....

When looking at these works please bear in mind that they were my very first baby steps after a period in my life of great upheaval and change. These are little warm up excercises, in A4 format and smaller and were created at the end of 2008.

All the same - I was quite pleased with the way they worked out. Although it had been some time since i had made any art they still are 'in my style'

Now you may ask what is 'my style'? i suppose it would be easier for an outsider to answer this question but from my own perspective my work is usually nature based but within that theme i try to convey emotion and feeling. primarily I would use symbolism - so look up the symbolism of different plants - although sometimes the symbolism is personal - i have my own feelings about what things mean - if that makes it any easier! Hehehe!

Now, nature also contains us people and animals, so they will crop up in my work too. Plants are easier, less complicated, so that is why I started here. I love the sinuous form of plants. That is definitely in my style. i have to say i do adore 'Art Nouveau' which is decorative - i would apply that label to my own art - it is decorative. Even when the themes in my work are quite dark I try to make something beautiful out of it.

So - not to go on too long - I would rather the work speaks for itself: Nature, symbolism, beauty, emotion and feelings - those are the elements in my work. Oh yes, and fantasy and imagination will crop up a bit later on too!

the sinuous line in my 'Physalis' and the 'pearl' that lies within,
the sadness of the 'Crushed leaves',
and the dark beauty of the somnolent 'Opium Poppies'

I hope that helps

apologies for being a very bad blogger

when i began this blog i don't think i really appreciated what a blog is.
i still don't think that i fully understand but i am now making a concerted effort to keep it up and keep on pushing.
Actually somebody who i love dearly has kicked my butt and said "do it"
so this is a first response to that.

What he really wants me to do is to upload some pictures of my work - so tomorrow morning that is what i will start to do although in no particular order to begin with.

i will however, sit down with a pencil and paper first thing and try to make a bit of a plan so that when somebody comes to view the site they will be taken on some sort of a journey. I would like that.

So to begin - where I am now. it is two years later from my first postings and I am living for the time being in Norway - which is pretty cool. i have been working very hard for the last 6 months or so and am starting to see an interesting body of new work emerging. it is a bit eclectic but that is because my partner (he who has kicked my butt) has given me free rein to make and do as I please. He has no problem with the work that I have done to date but has noticed a trend towards my not always finishing things that I have started. He is quite correct of course because i never do work from a to b to c and so on - sometimes i skip on to p and q all of a sudden and then back to h. but he does not quite understand that yet. It is not a criticism of him, on the contrary, I am very glad that he has done a bit of butt kicking (it did not hurt that much!) and it has focussed me onto continuing this blog and posting images of my work for others to see.

So for tonight i will say goodnight but in the morning WATCH THIS SPACE