Painting Robins

Paint smeared & happy

my thursday/friday job finds me

with brush in hand & new challenges waiting

smooth pieces of slate or granite with polish sanded away

ready for a splash of colour, a picture to be painted

today the stresses of my week slowly melted away

as i found myself with each brush stroke i made

back where i belong, being creative again.

The decision . . .

I am feeling ever so slightly overwhelmed today. First there were notions & fancies, then day dreams & ponderings, followed by heaps of mulling over & ruminations and then, then, there we were, suddenly, at yesterday. Today was the day of "The Decision" !

The sums are done, the weighing up is over. I am about to embark on the newest part of my adventure. One month away from becoming my very own boss! Oh my, that sounds scary & exciting, and huge!!

I think it will take a good while for this to sink in. On Monday i am handing in my notice. No more long drives, glaring computer screens, coming home too exhausted to do much more than eat & sleep. I am going to have time & energy to do my stuff! 

 Mr O is here, right beside me, step by step, all the way. He asked me my main reason for doing this?" I thought for a minute, then it came as clear as day, "because this is what i am", a "creative type", one of those mysterious creatures who won't be truly happy unless there is a brush or pencil, in her hand, letting it all flow out.

I drew my faces illustration over there, when one day i was thinking of all the different parts we play in our own lives and the lives of others. All making up our one whole self. My self is mother, wife, daughter, sister, aunt. It is home-maker, seamstress, writer, cook, gardener. It is soon to be self-employed artist & illustrator - hopeful ETSY shop owner, gallery exhibitor & creator of many things. It sounds so yummy & I can't wait!

My secret wish . . .

I haven't told you yet about my secret wish,

the very thing i am quietly, creeping towards, have i?

* * *

It is almost as if, by whispering these words out loud,

i will let my dream escape & fly away.

But i am going to be brave, i shall tell you!

I dream of a day when, in the not so distant future,

i can give up my "day job" & move full time to a life filled

with making & painting, story telling & creating.

* * *

The world of my childhood, that i put down somewhere & lost

so very long ago, the world filled with

goodness, myth & legend, magical things & happy endings.

faeries & gypsies, fantastic creatures & shining knights,

dragons & mermaids, the world of my imagination.

* *

After 26 long years,

for that's how long ago it is since i last painted,

i hope i have the courage to take that step.

I want to paint & sketch & give life to my world again,

those scribbled characters above,

locked in my sketchbooks for too many years.

I think i should open the pages and let them out. . . ..

*VVVVV*VVVVV*

What is right for one soul may not be right for another.

It may mean having to stand on your own

and do something strange in the eyes of others.

But do not be daunted,

do whatever it is because you know within it is right for you.

Eileen Caddy

It is such a goods feeling to be going home. . .

A place for ideas

I bought myself a treat today, a beautiful note book to treasure.

The perfect place to store my ideas & sketches. Whenever i open its cover to start scribbling, i see the words below & they make me smile - for my soul has indeed filled with a rainbow of colours, every one a lesson learnt.
Designed by the talented & brave, late artist Laurel Burch. You can follow the link below to read Laurel's inspiring story. The cover shows "Spirit of womankind" so vibrant, like jewels lying here on my desk.

Propped up in the corner of the studio is my easel, for the moment home to some things i started a long, long time ago.

The picture at the front is a rough for a painting depicting motherhood

i can hardly wait to start on it again.

www.laurelburch.com

A spark of creative inspiration

For three whole weeks, I have been house bound thanks to a slipped disc, trapped nerve and a doctors note. It was so sore, and I was probably so grumpy to live with. But I loved that I had a reason to stay at home, clear my head and re-focus.  I have drawn & painted, scribbled & scrawled, pages & pages of ideas, sketches and notes, so many project ideas. I have felt so alive.  How wonderful it would be to do this all day every day.

I have this poem on my inspiration board, first learnt it from my Mom . . .

Work

There is no point in work

Unless it absorbs you

Like an absorbing game.

If it doesn’t absorb you

If it’s never any fun,

Don’t do it.

When a man goes out into his work

He is alive like a tree in Spring

He is living, not merely working.

D H Lawrence

What wonderful words they are . . . my hope one day!

Over the years I found I lost the energy & motivation to come home after a long day at work and start to make at. Now, a spark is kindled, over these past weeks I  have become more determined to aim for my goals. my dream ~ to be a full time, self -employed artist.

 I want to hold on to this focus I have discovered whilst being off work and get back to producing paintings again. I am going to try and do at least one sketch/painting each day to keep this new focus going and after all everything happens for a reason, doesn't it!

A story of how wishes can come true . . . .

Once upon a long time ago, on a peaceful, secluded sandy shore at the Mull of Galloway in Scotland, whilst on holiday visiting Granny, a little girl bent down and oh so very carefully traced a message on a patch of pure, sparkling sand.  Grannie had whispered to  her that sometimes, if the sea came up and washed away a wish, it just might just come true . . . the words she wrote?   " I wish we could all live in Scotland and be near to Granny" . . .

That gentle, little girl, for so very long, had a yearning for peaceful, unspolit, countryside and longed to live near her granny & papa her auntie & cousins.  Mommy stood watching, heart aching as her little girl came running excitedly along the beach, rosy cheeked, expectantly, hugging her secret tight. Mommy knew what that sandy message would say, a shared but impossible dream of both mother & daughter

Yet the unimaginable happened . . . Five months later at the door of a their little scottish cottage, surrounded by her precious family, stood that same sweet girl calling to Grannie " could we come for tea tomorrow".  Mommy smiled at those words, & her heart was full.  So fast they had hardly time to blink, magical happenings had happened, and here they were, now living a stones throw from Granny & cups of tea, cuddles & visits galor. A dream come true.

And that is the story of how magic really did happen and my family and I found ourselves living here in beautiful Scotland, surrounded by the heather & the hills & my family.   Who says wishes can't sometimes come true. 

Have you every wished for something so much, but hardly dared to imagine. . . .

*

 “To see a World in a Grain of Sand And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand And Eternity in an hour.”
  William Blake quotes