Leon Bakst drawings I have always admired, and recently when I watched the Chanel / Stravinsky story my interest in the Ballet Russe became more prominent in my life again. I find the colours so inspiring.   Diaghilev was a very clever man, he put together composers and artists the most avant-garde of their time, Braque, Stravinsky, Chanel, Picasso, Matisse and Nijinsky the famous dancer and produced the most inspiring and challenging ballets.  He was not at all afraid to break with convention and his passion paid off, however at his death it limped along but was never the same again.

The boldness, the colours, the loose shapes, ballet costumes had never been seen like this before.  I just love them, the colours sing out, I so would love to have been around to see their opening nights, especially THE RITES OF SPRING, apparently this caused a riot and they had to close down the theatre!!  It’s hard to believe that now, but here is a collection of some the hundreds of costumes that were designed and made especially for each ballet.

Could they be transformed into paper sculptures, could the colour combinations be transformed into my design work and paintings, somehow they will have an influence, my creative mind is like a sponge, its absorbs everything around me so that one day it will be expressed in some form again as I continue along this creative path

I saw this clip this morning and just knew I was meant to.  It was a true gift.  Colour lifts my soul, there is no doubt about it.  Expressing with colour is so beneficial to the psyche.   I find myself attracted to colour in my daily life more and more, bits and pieces I buy for my home lately are wild they make a wonderful contrast to the dark grey that forms the basis of my home.  My own personal clothing in the main is colourless, but inside me pulsates with many shades of violet, orange, yellow, mauve, magenta, vermillion, a whole rainbow.  Who wants their house painted? any takers?

Oh and also some vintage adverts for Schiaperelli’s perfume Shocking by Marcel Vertes, now these are for my bedroom , this is for sure

watch this documentary here on iPlayer http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/search?q=the%20secret%20of%20waves

Port Eynon – Gower Peninsula.   a wonderful weekend walking by the sea, so invigorating, after watching the The Secret Life of Waves I now understand why I am so drawn to the sea.

Walking to the Worms Head, looking down onto Rossili Bay on a very wild and windy day.

The Gower Peninsula, Wales,  A wonderful weekend  with the ones I love

This year I feel equally full of optimism for the coming year, saying goodbye to 2010, fully embracing 2011 is very exciting.    So many things to do, to experience, to see to enjoy.  I have written a list and it gets longer everyday.  This time I am going to print it out and put a line through each item as they are achieved……………..  I am also leaving a huge space for new thing to arise, unexpected things, new challenges, new opportunities, this is the part that for me makes my life so rewarding.

I have been spending time these last few days purchasing new paints, ordering canvases, sketching, list making and creating new images of my existing artwork and photography.

Took away various “threads” with me, one very colourful from one of my favourite suppliers, black and white and turquiose, old gold and matt black highlighted with a dusky pink purple.  Quite magical.

The following is a taste of the colourful.

Have spent some of the weekend writing up guided meditations, visualisations and all manner of stuff for a forthcoming workshop in Malta I run with a couple of friends.   In doing so I was inspired to create this image.   I call it THE MASK ………….. of perfectionism. 

I have worked with many people who are crippled by this, unable to sometimes  even make any steps forward because of the immense anxiety.   Often this control comes of out of a real sense of sadness within, it cannot be revealed at any cost so the person controls their external environment to such a degree that absolutely everything around them has to be perfect. I too have this incidious trait, it can be so cruel, I have battled with this a long time, its a lot easier now I have learnt to let go a little and life has become somewhat less anxious but the creative process can sometimes be a nightmare.  Dr Estes wrote a letter on facebook about perfectionsism,  she explains it so well, I have posted it on my other blog, click here

The image is done in oil paint, oil pastels, scanned into my laptop and layered digitally……………

Today I gave myself a beautiful little treat, passing by a little country cottage on my way out for a nice walk with a friend of mine, I came across these beautiful bunches of flowers, sweet peas, dahlias and asters, so perfectly bright, cheery and smelled so sweet, just perfect as you can see.  I adore sweet peas, when I had an allotment a few years back now, I always had sweet peas growing so I could have a jug full of  the  bright coloured stems next  to my bed.  Just looking at them brings a big smile to my face and lots of happy memories of  sowing and planting out, weeding and harvesting, always ending a stint on the allotment with a flask of tea sitting outside my shed with Brian, my allotment neighbour  and sharing his years of  experience growing veg, we would chatter away and laugh, drink the last drops from the flask, then I would gather a bunch of the heady perfumed sweet peas and drive of home.  Happy memories.

Ended up walking along  Ditchling Beacon, a little ways only as it was quite chilly and very blustery, but enough to blow the cobwebs away and  put my life back in to perspective.  The Beacon is the highest point in East Sussex and one  can see for miles around.   I had hoped to have a nice drive in my new car with the top down, but it was too chilly.  Did for awhile though, with the heated seats on full blast !!

Lunched in THE WHITE HORSE at Ditching village, a nice simple pub, with nice simple food, totally unpretentious, warm and welcoming…………. http://www.whitehorseditchling.com/index.html

All I want to do now is sleep…………………..