Art of Abstraction


Among the myriad of projects that I am trying to apply myself to daily, whilst trying not to get too side-tracked whenever the going gets a bit tough, I have been doing an online course called 'The Art of Abstraction' from the US artist Alissa Burke. I just came across this while browsing and so far, it's the most enjoyable yet. Somehow, in a very short time, she has conveyed the essence of how to produce a simple, colourful daubing that is both fun to do and which the creator actually likes. This is the very essence of what I want. I do it for fun and for my own eyes only. So why am I plastering this on a blog I can hear the resounding voices of those few friends who read this (...thanks...) ? I can't come up with an answer to this blatant contradiction - other than it gives me great pleasure to do this, too. It's perhaps a very safe way to show off a bit without inviting or risking nasty comments (well, I hope). A way to justify sloshing colour on a white page with a brush or, more often, my hand, for hours on end?

I have so far done only the first two chapters out of six. So, much fun to come alongside the Creative Sketchbooks course and several others. There is another called 'Bloom True' by Fiona Bowley which is also enjoyable. 


.........or maybe this is all a giant ruse to get me out of gardening yet another year????????

Just a page

...from a past journal but the poem resonates over and over, and I think it might for other people too!

A Tale of Two Oaks

Just outside where I stayed in France, across the tiny lane, stand two oak trees which seem to guard the cluster of very old houses. Billy told me that the oaks are, in fact, quite famous, and have stood at least since 1750. The branches are a little spindly but the trunks are amazing - deeply furrowed like curvy waves and testament to the years. Home to thousands of insects and a collection of fungi, moss and lichen, they glow golden yellow in the mellow sunset.

In the bushes opposite the oaks, at the entrance to Studio Preniac, you can just see this very old weathered cross. It is a Druidic cross, marking the presence of a very old Druidic settlement - it has stood guarding over and protecting the old houses for centuries.

EVER so quick - have changed the settings (my mistake) - and now, hopefully, anybody who feels like it can write a comment. In fact, I would LOVE you to!

La Belle France

I am not long back from a fascinating trip to France. I felt as if I had been washed in perfumed soapflakes and hung out to dry in the fresh, fragrant air and warm sunshine. I billowed, an urge to spread out and fly over the lush fields.  I was seeing the verdent landscape through much cleaner spectacles, not the usual rose-colored lens, so that everything sparkled and shone. I don't think I have ever seen so many shades of green in one glance; one could spend a month mixing blues and greens and still not come up with such a variety. I was seeing 'Spring' for the first time.

 I stayed in a gite in a tiny hamlet called Preniac, near the beautiful hilltop medieval village of Montcuq which itself is about 25km southwest of the historic town of Cahors on the River Lot. The first week was a course with the textile artist Ruth Isset, mainly working with colour, learning how to dye using various methods, then layering and sewing our multi-hued pieces of material. We worked hard from early morning until just before dinnertime, spurred on by the knowledge that we were due for another culinary delight that night. Wine flowed freely, too, with appreciative slurps and gulps. I felt ashamed of another of my 'one' weaknesses (in the words of the Post Mistress of Lark Rise to Candleford)....my rejection of red wine due to chronic migraine problems and my guilty addiction to Coca Cola (well, at least Diet Coke)....

Studio Preniac

Our enthusiastic group

Dyed with a 'y'

 We were not blessed with the best of weather but I had a wonderful week, made some lasting new friendships and came home several kilos heavier due to our hosts' (Billy and Liz) gourmet cooking. It was without doubt the most delicious food I have ever eaten. I stayed on in one of their cosy cottages for a few more days to explore the area.

My home

At last the sun came out, the top of my Megane convertible was lowered and I sped through the country lanes feeling on top of the world, breathing in the scents of the wildflowers, bedazzled by the glare of a million scarlet poppies and assailed by the calls of thousands of birds. It was a magical experience.

Sarlat

I ventured up into the Dordogne area, too, delighting in the sheer beauty of the river valleys and the perfection with which these ancient French towns and cities have been preserved.

Market Day in Montcuq

Sarlat was unforgettable - a town of dark, shadowy alleyways and arches, squares lined with ancient stone and wooden-clad houses, colourful shops selling local produce - pate de foie gras, ceps mushrooms, oils, truffles and a huge array of preserves and compotes. A town to explore and be transported back 800 years or so.  LaRoque-Gagiac and Lauzarte are also places I would recommend, likewise Cirque Lapopie and Domme - in fact every village and town is worth a serious visit with several camera memory cards.      
                                                                                       

TOOTHACHE and HEARTACHE

After a bout of bad toothache last month, I sat down to try to portray this. I drew one tooth (one of my few remaining!), which reminded me instantly of a picture I saw in the brilliant Visitor Centre beside the Rio Grande Rift Valley in New Mexico near Santa Fe. So I incorporated the two ideas into one. It was also near my dear Roy's birthday, and I had been thinking about him a lot, so I then got to thinking about the whole concept of 'pain' and 'ache' and the different ways we feel it. As I was doing this, the TV was on in the background with a girl singing the old song "It must be love". The words resounded like a massive bell tolling in my head. I went to the net, copied down the lyrics which seemed to mirror word for word what I was feeling that moment. So, for me, this page started off with toothache and ended with heartache....

CAT + CAT = FUN

I promise this is not going to be a 'My Pets' blog but bear with me while I am practising and trying to link the blog with Facebook. My two cats, Gracie and Diana, both abandoned cats, are ten years old this year. Besides being loving, affectionate and demanding friends, there are endless ways to portray them and have fun. Here they are in real life....Diana, the shy, reserved Siamese with a snooty air - and the crazy calico cat Gracie - eyes wide open, impulsive, rash and punky. Guess which one I am like!

           


















Here they are as I see them..........

Then I imagined how Picasso might see them....

Finally, I did this a while ago in an attempt to catch the naive, softness that is Gracie...

Anyone else got a favourite pet photo or portrait? 

Just a couple of pages

A couple of my journal pages........these are from what I call my day journals. I enjoy doing the layers of background best and this takes days and oodles of impatience as I wait for each daubing to dry. The one above was inspired by the idea that I have been so busy recently that I, and my brain, have been going round in ever concentric circles - the windmills of the mind!  In the one below, the inspiration came from a piece of my favourite material which is stitched onto the opposite page, then I carved some rubber stamps similar to the patterns and try to mirror and add to the original design which can be seen in the small sewn-on squares.  

Plus a shot of where I work......

What I do.....

 My name is Linda Chaves but the nickname 'Lin the Pink' seems to have evolved recently - after years of pondering, I finally plucked up courage to go punk and pink at the same time and immediately felt forty years younger. I am about to enter the rather daunting world of blogging because I want to share a little of my art and my writing, and maybe a traveller's tale or two. So this first blog will be quite long, but then hopefully just snippets.


I am a semi-retired teacher, but the joy of teaching still lives within. I adored every second in the classroom and I often dream of the thousands of pupils-who-became-friends that I have taught since 1974. I graduated into adult education, but teaching children aged 7 to 12 years old will always be my purpose in life.




I came to live in Portugal way back in 1979. I love it here - the deep blue of the summer sky, the yellow glow at sunset and this warmth mirrored in the most loving, caring, hospitable people you could meet. Since my soulmate. Roy, died in 2009, my life has changed beyond recognition. I was scared of flying all my life but crazy to explore the world. Two years ago, I finally summoned up the courage...and now I am addicted. I have been several times to India, driven Route 66 in true 60's style, ventured across many stunning areas of the US like North Carolina, Arizona and New Mexico, driven Highway One in California and braved the sensual onslaught that is Vietnam. On the road,  I spend the evenings in pyjamas on hotel beds writing up the excitements and enchantments of the day in my Moleskine and printing out photos uncontrollably from my little pink Pogo printer.  I attempt to make a few marks and splashes of colour before I am forced to sleep in order to carry on next day. 

I travel as far and wide as I can afford. I am off to tour Utah in a car all alone next week and super excited so I aim to start some limited travel blogging from there. You could call me a scenery addict but that's untrue. I'm also addicted to the sky and weather to the point of boredom, chatting endlessly and quite frivolously to complete strangers and other odd/interesting/kind people I come across, taking photos from every angle except maybe the best one and, my guilty not-so-secret pleasure - shopping. I will absolve myself from guilt only to say that I only spend all of my money and nobody else's......and I do like birdwatching, though I am limited by the fact that I can hear them but can't see them, in fact I am hopeless at the 'spotting', better at the identifying!

I also journal at home in my little house in the north of Portugal. Two years ago I had never done a single creative act in my life. All I needed was a sketchbook and some inspiration and an array of colours on a shelf.... I write lots ....some of the pages I may publish will have bits 'covered' - thoughts best kept to myself - and I like to splash colour around sometimes wildly, sometimes thoughtfully, and usually pinkly (well, my hair is pink after all). I also attempt more 'artistic' pages and am trying to improve my drawing skills. I am doing a course (in a sister blog) to try to learn some actual technique, maybe get more confidence so I have the guts and motivation to do more and to try to develop the one thing that, in my head, still eludes me - imagination. How to generate imaginative thought. How to think up something different. If anyone out there can tell me how to do this, I would be SO grateful. I'm nowhere near being creative yet but the process is fun, rewarding and absorbing.

This is my first ever blog and I promise to get better layouts, as I practise. I would like to post some of my journal pages and welcome any comments. I'll publish some of my travel journals while trying not to be boring. I'm hoping new ideas will come once I get used to blogging and can relax into it.....