At the centre of your being you have the answer, you know who you are and you know what you want ~ Lao Tzu

Tuesday, February 22

Trying something new...

inspired by sue, the other day i joined the Everyday Matters yahoo group.
they have an extensive (and at times, bizarre!) range of challenges to draw...
this one is 'something that starts with the first letter of your name...
... and just to be clever, i drew the saucer too :)

Sunday, February 20

Sunday siren

I am not a has-been, I am a will-be.
Lauren Bacall
I'm sure the reason this woman is still so beautiful at 86 is this forward-looking attitude...

Thursday, February 17

Thoughtful Thursday

Everything is speaking if we listen. A rock just talks slower. It takes a hundred years for it to say one syllable. We're not around long enough to hear what it has to say.
Natalie Goldberg, Living Color 1997
Ms Goldberg is well-known as a writer - her Writing Down the Bones is a classic! But she also paints and Living Color is a memoir of what painting means to her. Her style is distinctive and is growing on me as I read her book, but what I love are her memories of what she was thinking and feeling as she painted a particular picture... Her recollections add a whole new layer to what you see in the image!
I know a picture paints a thousand words, but I do so enjoy the artists who can share their experiences in words as well as pictures :)

Monday, February 14

It's official...

... Spring has arrived in our back garden!
It's still blowing a gale and bitterly cold, but I braved the cold and damp to capture these beauties sheltering under the far fence.
I think crocuses are Nature's true Valentine, so on this manmade holiday, Happy Valentine's Day :)

Sunday, February 13

Sunday wisdom

Creativity is life's insurance, because if you instil creativity in the smallest children, they will have no fear, because they can improvise... It's about a very subtle way to think and to realize, if this doesn't work, then i can solve things in another way; confidence and flexibility.
Li Edelkoort (Dutch trend forecaster)

Friday, February 11

Researching Drawing


I still haven't actually put pencil to paper, but I have found this amazing website, which should keep my going until I can actually afford these *sigh*

Thursday, February 10

Sorry, but...

... this is how i'm feeling today...
*ho hum*

and yes, it's grey and drizzly outside too
:(

Wednesday, February 9

Leaving space...

every day i get a poem in my emailbox from the lovely people at Panhala.
this is today's - enjoy :)

Fire

What makes a fire burn
is space between the logs,
a breathing space.
Too much of a good thing,
too many logs
packed in too tight
can douse the flames
almost as surely
as a pail of water would.
So building fires
requires attention
to the spaces in between,
as much as to the wood.

When we are able to build
open spaces
in the same way
we have learned
to pile on the logs,
then we can come to see how
it is fuel, and absence of the fuel
together, that make fire possible.

We only need to lay a log
lightly from time to time.
A fire
grows
simply because the space is there,
with openings
in which the flame
that knows just how it wants to burn
can find its way.

~ Judy Brown ~

(Leading from Within, ed. by Sam M. Intrator and Megan Scribner)

Tuesday, February 8

A strange thing about being 46...

... is seeing a former heart-throb with his incredibly handsome son!!

How is that even possible??!!

I think he has his father's amazing bone structure and his mum's beautiful, soft Irish eyes...

Jeremy and Max Irons

Monday, February 7

Cloud Nylon

Went to a wonderful exhibition yesterday at the Harley Gallery to see the magical creations of Nora Fok.
Her creations are magical yet earthy - inspired by coral, or beads of dew, or seedpods...
They are fantastical, yet familiar, and on the right occasions, wonderfully wearable :)
I managed to resist the urge to buy one of her limited edition bangles *sigh* and instead bought the current issue of Crafts magazine, in which Nora's featured.

Friday, February 4

Pondering...

image - Unkillable Human, Frederick Franck


The inexpressible is the only thing worth expressing.

Frederick Franck (1909-2006)


Wednesday, February 2

Mid-week quote

The best way out is always through.
Robert Frost