Finished a small painting last Friday, it's only 12 x 18 ins and plan to have another finished by the end of this week. Photo's will follow shortly.
After recharging my batteries, I came home with renewed positive energy and it suddenly occurred to me one day how I could start using watercolours in a similar way to how I have been using oils. I have had issues with paint drying this year, which has left me feeling frustrated as I was unable to continue on the 5 pieces that I had started 3 months ago, so it was a relief to realise that I could paint in watercolour, a medium I usually find tedious, without compromising my style.
I found the whole process incredibly exciting and am now eager to create some more. I am very pleased with the result of the first 'trial' piece titled 'Fractal Dreams, I' and I am positive that it is as a result of having some much needed 'me' time in my beloved forest. I sometimes feel the need to be alone; to take myself off for a while, to walk, read, take photos, be quiet, be still. To only have think of myself without having to consider the needs of other people. It helps to re-energise me and to get myself back in touch with my true self and to connect to the landscape around me. All the routines of daily life I find eventually drain me to a point where I can no longer 'feel', let alone function as a creative being; the spark needs to be rekindled with a period of solitude and reclusion.
I recently spent a week in Rendlesham Forest, a place that has been a huge part of my life since I was a small girl and where my maternal ancestry lies. When visiting it, it is like going home. Reaquainting myself with the heathland and forest, like long lost friends. Just a short walk away is Staverton Thicks, an ancient woodland of 120 hectares containing 800 - 1000 year old pollarded Oaks and Holly trees. With age, the Oaks take on anamorphic forms, and it seems that each time I go, it reveals something different of itself to me. It is as though the spirits of place become visible through those forms. It is teeming with deer and in April / May, the ground is covered with Blue Bells; the canopy above, glowing with the acidic green of the newly unfurling Oak leaves and the air below shimmering with the amorphous glow of the Blue Bells. It is a truly magickal place and it was wonderful to once again walk there in solitude and ground myself again. It is somewhere I have made many painting of and will continue to do so for many years to come |
Archives
December 2018
Categories |