its been awhile since posting here, have been in total overwhelm…….  day job taken over, new kitchen being fitted in my home, one thousand and one pressing demands just felt I have been drowning !!  I did manage to get away in between this mayhem and get total rest and sunshine with friends in Malta.  But plunged back in the deap ocean again swimming against the tide this week

Coming back up for some air !  Once this project is ready for the launch on 6th June I can breath again and get back to my creative self !!  I am lucky my day job is creative, its been such a huge part of  my life since March, very rewarding but I need to start my own path again soon. Its like there are two of me, one creating environments for people to enjoy and another feeling a little frustrated that she hasnt time to express  a new path…….  It will come, can feel it my bones !!

Here is a piece that I worked on some while back , drowning in the ocean……….(click on image for a larger view)

So where does the change come in ! well I have been sewing, sewing a quilt, still not finished, so many squares and rectangles to sew, I am beginning to get bored of sitting at the machine. So this evening in quiet meditation practice, I just took a pencil and let it roam around the page. shapes were forming, I shaded and moulded them and hey presto this is what materialised. A complete change to sewing, just me, stillness, pencil and paper and The Mother Tree

Thank you Dawn for sharing this video with me

I give you ALICE HERZ SOMMER

Then after the orange spurt on Monday, partly prompted by bitter orange library scheme I am creating for my next project in my day job, like luscious tangy marmalade all juicy and ripe.  Partly inspired by the wonderful parrot tulips I treated myself to.  But now its purple, the wonderful pinky purple colour that hot beetroot makes when doused in sour cream swirls……..  Deep magenta,  oozing damson liquor when baked in a pie.  I cooked myself beetroot and courgette with warm lemon yoghurt dressing tonight, the taste was just sublime.  As I  rubbed the warm skin from the cooked beetroot just couldn’t resist taking a photo of it,  Hey presto it turned into a humble beet to kind of Beet Mandala !

I love the way snow seems to blanket sound, everything is quiet, like time stands still.  The colours of snow reminded me of a piece of work I made . It started life as grisaille painting, a still life of some treasured items of mine , silver and reflective.  Taking a photograph of it to study the tonal qualities I started to play with it digitally and turned it to this……………  exactly what today has conjured up for me

 I call this my  snow mandala

this is the original piece of work , a creative  exercise in trying to capture differing qualities of metal, stone, and shiny objects

So this is now Day Three, not sure if orange is in my realm today, but sitting here next to a bowl of orange tulips I cant help but feel sunny and warm inside.  The sun is not shining today as it was the last two mornings, the sky is grey, but somehow this doesn’t matter, I can still feel that uplifted feeling that the memory evokes.

Orange is such an enticing colour, its pure creative energy and a colour I am drawn to in my artworks.   I have  even been using it in a more burnt marmalade shade in my next project  being installed in March/April.  sumptuous velvets, Toleware from Paris, silk sheaths on the chandelier chains……….. and much more.  It’s all very exciting

Here is a pictorial view of how orange has inspired me , first off my kitchen flowers

A bowl of Parrot Tulips in my kitchen

taken on visit to Krishnamurti Centre

Tree Fertility, pencil sketch coloured digitally

Tree Spirit family – painting

 watercolour – I called this Fragility but now I can see it’s a beautiful forest

Leaves I collected on an autumn walk

A small scultpure I call Freedom

patchwork coat for my daughter’s puppyplaying at breakfast

shoes I made of paper

The list could to on and on and on !