Spring and new things are sprouting . . .

"Sweet April showers do spring May flowers." ~ Thomas Tusser

 I love the sound of April rain pattering on my umbrella!

I know, it's April already, how did that happen?

 
All these different weather happenings reminded me of a wee poem from my childhood

Whether the weather be fine, Whether the weather be not,
Whether the weather be cold, Whether the weather be hot,
We'll weather the weather, Whatever the whether,
Whether we like it or not
~Author Unknown

I'm also loving my woodland walks & feeling Mother Nature really stirring now

everything is sprouting and i am endlessly fascinated by all the different greens,

they are inspiring ideas for a Spring painting too.

 We have a wonderful daffodil lane by the cottage, a row of brightest sunshine

and even on the cloudiest day, it always makes me happy.

 And of course I had been keeping my eye on the wild garlic, and soon had some picked. We used some of the young leaves to add lovely flavour to a salad & I'm going to make pesto too.  Here is a link to an easy recipe for ~ Wild Garlic Pesto

Things are sprouting and growing and Spring is most definitely here at last.

I have been sprouting things too,  exciting new ideas here in my studio!

They are not quite ready to share yet, but I can give you a hint  . . . 

I am putting together a whole series of "creative play" workshops!

Do you have any thoughts on what you would love to "play" with creatively?

A January go slow & stirrings . . .

Catching up on news & happenings, where did January go . . .

After my morning walk I came home grinning from ear to ear, for I discovered there are stirrings in the forest, the beginnings of bluebells and there are snowdrops down the lane. Spring is on its way & things are slowly starting to come out of their sleepy hibernation.

 

The darkness of January, I always find the hardest months to bear, when the light is gone & the skies are grey.  It is my "Go Slow" month, I have always fought that & it has made things so much worse.  So it was my personal challenge this year to be kind to myself & to wake to the year at my own pace. This year I have been hibernating too.

I have worked moments into my days when I take time out, go slow, curl by the crackling fire with cups of tea to sip, I have hunted for adventure in the delicious stories & books gifted to me at Christmas.

I have sat & watched sunlight flow into the stillness of my studio setting a myriad of sparkles dancing about the walls.

Then as February loomed, knowing my struggles with the darkness of the days, my Mr O whisked me of on a magical trip, away over sea, mountains & desert to an oasis of sunlight & colour & warmth.

Normally i choose to fill every minute of a holiday dashing about & exploring going home almost as tired as when we arrived. Apparently this was not on the list of to do's for this break!

By day three I was beginning to wonder how I would last a week.  Then as if by magic something clicked & I suddenly discovered its wonderful just to sit all day, every day, to watch, read, listen to music, doodle & well just relax. Well who knew! 

And loveliest of all, the creative block that has been lurking for oh so long, decided it needed a holiday too and my pencil just flew, I came home with  pages filled with ideas & doodles.

 I felt the stirrings of ideas beginning to form, plans starting to hatch.  Those sunshiney days where just the thing to give me the boost I needed and I came home with boundless energy, a full sketchbook & plenty of mosquito bites !

The images above are the workings for an upcoming exhibition, but more of that another time.

Wishing you all a peaceful Christmas . . .

It's Christmas eve and all through the house not a creature is stirring . . .

The house is ready, corners sparkling in the firelight, waiting peacefully for visitors to arrive.

 

I'm signing off to spend time with family & appreciating all the precious small things,

for those are the ones that makes my days shine.

 

I wish each & every one of you a peaceful Christmas, may your days be filled with loveliness.

x x x

Some November favourites . . .

Some of my favourite November things  ~

Our annual family get together bonfire night.  We are such a huge family now and scattered all over, but everyone who possibly can comes home for bonfire night, brothers, sisters, grandparent's, nieces & nephews, sons & daughters. I love these precious times we all spend together.

Being Mom to my three & now a Granny, still amazing & one of the best jobs I have ever had.

Making time to journal, re-learning how to play with my creativity & go with the flow every day.

Autumn colours shining through & creating spectacular displays here in our little wood.

Finding snippets of loveliness on my travels on the web, such as this video of the amazing starling murmurations over at Gretna Green, something Mr O & I had the pleasure of witnessing last year.

Autumn reflections & creations

As Autumn has drawn in I have found myself distracted from my work, so many other bits & pieces to start & finish, never enough hours in the day.  One such "other" project I had in mind was to make a book for all my favorite poems & sayings saved & lost in the depths of the computer. I printed them out and collected them together in a wee book, whose margins & gaps shall be filled with scraps of collected favorite images from magazines etc & scribbles of mine too. A work in progress me thinks, but such fun and a joy to look through .Earlier this year a school in South Africa contacted me asking if they could use my thistle image for a project the pupils were doing about Scotland. Of course I said yes! They divided the image up and each pupil had to interpret their section in their own way. The result a beautiful collage that they then used on the cover of their school year book.

I had forgotten all about the project, then months later a copy of the book popped through my letter box, a lovely surprise, they even included a wee thank you inside. I love the different interpretations, and think the students have done a grand job.

 I have had a bowl sat on my desk filled with petals from my Moms Bourgenvilla bush all Summer waiting patiently for some attention.  They have now been threaded onto string and hung at my studio window where they catch these last Autumn rays of sunlight through their delicate petals.

I took time out to go foraging in the forest during these beautiful Autumn tinged days and lost myself amongst the quiet of the trees, and the beauty of patchwork fallen leaves.  We found goodies a plenty and my new favourite makes  are  blackberry & apple chilli chutney &  Elderberry liqueur!

 I am endlessly fascinated by shadows & silhouette where light is chased into corners & things take on an ethereal quality.  The clear skied evenings have given us such spectacular Autumn sunsets this year, casting magical shadow puppet shows through the windows, edging all with gold and tinting with pink. 

 

On a visit to the local neolithic site of Cairnholy, one such sunset inspired me to begin work on a new painting. I wanted to capture the mystery & essence of times long past that I felt at this ancient burial cairn.  It is a Clyde chambered neolithic Cairn, meaning it has upright stones on either side of the entrance and is thought to be one of the earliest type. Finds from the site included a leaf shaped arrowhead and an axe with jadeite, a rare green stone that came from the Alps. The axe is now in the Royal Museum of Scotland In Edinburgh. More info on the cairn here & here.

 

 At last it is done “At the end of the day ~Cairnholy” and now available as prints here in my Etsy store.     For some reason on my laptop it looks much lighter than the original & prints.

As Autumn rolls by and peaceful evenings descend upon our wee cottage it is always a time of reflection for me.  This year for a goodly while I have felt off balance & out of sorts, I realised my work & my art had all got a little too serious & un~enjoyable, something I hear happens to so many creative folk. 

After much reflection my solution is to take a chunk of time out.   I am hoping I can learn to play & get messy & be imperfect again with my creativity, to feel inspired again.  So with that in mind I have signed up to try one of  Jani Franc's  e~courses, exciting & scary, but already proving to be great fun.  So I am settling in for Autumn here in our wee cottage, looking forward to log fires, cosy evenings,  and  much getting messy & playing. 

 I wonder what does Autumn mean for you, do you find it a time of reflection, feel the need for a re-charge, If so what practices or rituals do you find help you ?