Acts of Beauty

I finally have a time and place to perform my first solo show, something I have been dreaming about for years, at least since I was 9.  It’s funny how when it becomes real it’s more… real… less of a dream.  Less awe-inspiring.  Because there’s certainly a lot of work to do (sound of sleeves being rolled up).

Most exiting are the lovely friends who have agreed to help me on this journey, and with their permission I may profile them here later on…  Hurray!!

Here are some first stages of artwork to go into the programme.  The poster will be different again…

I always do a first draft which I love but is not perfect, in an irreverent, unthinking messy way.  Then I try to improve on it in the second draft by planning and plotting and trying to make it ‘good’, but these things are unrepeatable and I get so frustrated with myself.  The best drawn lines are ones I look at afterwards and can’t fathom how I made it – it doesn’t look like it’s mine.  Or that they’re just random flicks of a wrist that I didn’t care about at the time but now are perfect.  Or perfectly imperfect.

And the final version:

Right, now I’m off to bed, was up til 4am doing that last one…

I had a birthday recently and some lovely things happened in the world of nature to make me smile…

First I woke up, looked out of the window and watched this seagull standing motionless on the smoking chimney stack.  Funny.

Later on I had a delivery of one Birthday Rainbow,

with accompanied ridiculousness attached:

(just imagine it was coming out of my mouth and you’ll get the picture),

then the starlings did some magic, which completely distracted me from my dinner – photos taken through restaurant window,

Then after going to the circus (ish), I saw a beautiful pale ring around the moon.  No photos – too dark, you’ll just have to imagine the feeling of wonderment I had throughout the day.  (also nice; presents, friendly messages, and threats to throw me into the sea at 6am not undertaken (the sentiment was greatly appreciated)).

I want to paint hearts all over the bathroom.  My instructions are to try it out on paper first to see if it ‘works’.  Pfuh.  Of course it’s going to work!

Now I need to find some glue that doesn’t stick forever.

I was given a most wonderful present for Chrismas, that invloved, a bottle, fairy lights, and glass paint, and I have since been merrily painting and getting absorbed in colourful-light-land…

On a walk today I found the best backstreet for autumn leaves, got completely distracted from what I was meant to be doing, and instead, made this:

there is a ginko tree there,

but I loved the pink leaves the most

I went for a walk today to play with the leaves.

Astonishing colours, there’s so much vibrancy even after summer has gone.

This pile of leaves needed to be admired.

It was windy so I re-placed the leaves several times and held them down with mental glue.

I stopped to chat with some friends who walked past, and then the wind dropped and I finished it, into a large V shape.

Here are some of the leaves that I loved:

I didn’t go to the carnival with my dragon, but I did make something that reminded me of carnival in some inexplicable way.

Here are some details:

It was windy, so I couldn’t get the petals to lie in an orderly fashion.  Which is wholly appropriate.

That’s a pea in the bottom right corner.

This was just fun to make, to appreciate bright flowers, and feel good.

After taking so long to make decisions yesterday, I decided to worry less, and make them quickly.  I really enjoyed the result.

I used: first clippings of young grass, rose petals, jasmine, snapdragons, fuschia, geranium, orange day lilies, pink rose, hardy geranium, pansy, the rest I don’t know their names… yet, other than big daisy, which is a bit suspect.

He is a naturally occurring mandala.  What with being all curly. I’ve got cat envy.

The idea for this was prompted by Rob, so thank you.  I took the stones from the beach by my house, then returned them with their new coats…  Each stone needed many, many coats.  You can see where I got a bit impatient at times and didn’t wait before turning them over to paint the other side.  I am pleased with how vibrant they look. I have always wondered why there isn’t pink in the rainbow, or at least a warmer purple.  Violet is a cool colour, and Indigo is a dark cool colour.  There is an interesting way in which pink light is interpreted by the eye.  It actually has a similar vibration to green, but in order to differentiate it from green, our brains make up the colour pink.  And it is one of the loveliest colours, proven to make people happy. I dropped the stones onto the grass, and loved the random pattern and colour combinations.Can you see the tiny rainbow?  I didn’t stay to see who found it.