15th April

Holidays

We're back! A break from your usual routine and visiting new places gives us a fresh perspective and the chance to think different thoughts. I fully expected to be full of energy and draw HEAPS, but no, I found my eyes were so full of new things I couldn't settle into anything properly and become overwhelmed with choice. This little selection of quick sketches was fun, but I think it looked better before I put colour in - my travel box of watercolours hasn't had its colours updated for a while and I now prefer a different selection! Typical, I thought I was soooo well organised. Anyhow, I slipped into a rather passive tourist mode and explored, ate, and drove, or was driven, about the countryside just to see what we could see. Nelson is a very pretty place, great climate, I didn't see any graffiti and the shops in the main street were fantastic. No major malls, so I am guessing the middle of town is still functioning as a proper shopping, meeting, doing business kind of place. It was quite buzzy, and I really enjoyed people watching when we sat in a cafe for a while.

As to my daily drawing... I might catch up, we will see. You will have to pardon my lapses, I am trying not to put so much pressure to preform on myself!!

6th April

 

Off for a Few Days

We are off for a few days away, a much needed break in a slightly warmer city north of here. I am so looking forward to having some time where there are no calls on me to do anything except relax and enjoy exploring a bit. Hopefully I will be able to keep up with these little pictures, but it will mean a multiple upload next week. Now I have to decide what to pack - it's always a challenge, especially at this time of year when things can be hot, cold, wet, or windy all in one day, and what if we want to dress up a bit? Unlikely, I know, but I don't want to miss that possibility, so even packing lightly means 3 pairs of shoes! No stress!!

5th April

Cat Shapes

Another crack at using a cat silhouette and patterns. I think this is more successful, and I enjoyed incorporating a test strip for watercolour mixes from another painting. I am slowly working my way through a pile of old painting experiments and cutting them up to use as backgrounds or supports for this project - it is satisfying reducing the number of bits of work that I don't know what to do with!

 I am thinking about our cat as I write this, we have booked her into a cattery for a week and I can't help feeling slightly bad for her. She does have her routines and I am sure she will be annoyed at this imposition! It looks a good place with indoor/outdoor space and underfloor heating etc so she should be very comfortable - and yet I feel a bit guilty!

4th April

A Small Bunny Fantasy

I started this piece by recycling some strips of a previous picture that really didn't work for me, and it kind of evolved as I went along. I once attended a workshop where we were asked what kind of animal we would be that expressed who we were, and this great hulking, muscle-y bloke declared he would be a fluffy rabbit. I have never seen rabbits in the same light since! Anyhow, we have rabbits and plum blossom, and an Alice-ish person, all in honour of it being Easter Sunday, and despite our autumn-y surroundings I feel it is an appropriate wee fantasy for my inner child - she deserves a little outing today!

3rd April

Breathing

Drawing in deep slow breaths, filling your lungs with the breath of trees and your senses with the sounds of leaves moving in the air, the scents of the individual species around you, feeling a part of our earth as you take the time to be grounded and at peace. It is so easy to be rushing about, nerves jangling with all the demands of our lives, the racket of daily living, and yet it is also so easy to still yourself, re-visit an experience that was peaceful and draw on the remembered sensations for a few brief moments, and then return to the business of living refreshed. Today is the birthday of one of my sons, a special day full  of fond feelings and a wish that things could be easier between us. So I breathe out, and release the sadness there, breathe in, and smile at the happier things we have in common, and breathe out the love I feel for him. Somewhere he is breathing too and maybe a little of that love will reach him and make him smile a little for me.

2nd April

Dreaming

Nurturing of one's inner spaces is as important as making your outer spaces a reflection of parts of who you are. I treasure time to be introspective, listening to your inner self and the natural wisdoms we carry with us. Time for music and memories of beautiful places, and reminders of the things we hold precious within us. It is good to be wholly at ease with yourself from time to time, without the voices of critics within or without, no urgent  demands or explanations required. I find Autumn a great time for this state, warm enough not to be tense, the air calm for a change, and the light all golden as the sun gets lower on the horizon. Perfect for reflection before the darkness of the winter makes us sleepy and less comfortable in our skins.

1st April

Easter is Coming

Bunnies are everywhere running up to Easter, shop assistants are wearing pink and blue fluffy ears, chocolate and brightly coloured foil on the shelves. Here it is autumn and kind of 'wrong' for all the new life springing out of the cold bare earth symbolism, but we do have rabbits! Not that the farmers are happy about it, but I have all those Peter Rabbit stories, and Watership Downs, and The Little Grey Rabbit series that occupy my 'rabbit spaces' in my imagination. And The Velveteen Rabbit. So here are three furry bunnies in a grassy rabbit paradise, not a predator in sight, and thinking only of chocolate to come.