Why Pink Buddha?

The Pink Buddha means so much to me - I started painting Buddhas because they kind of speak to me, so hard to describe. My late Roy always acted rather as the voice of my conscience. Now I feel that the Buddhas do much the same. I both see and hear Roy in them, but also something even deeper, a spirituality, a force which I need to listen to, understand and make sense of, to be kinder and more generous, to be more forgiving - to be wiser and make better decisions. All this and much more that cannot be verbalised. I need to connect to this force to find the energy and work ethic I need for this enterprise - I have to dig deep and overcome the pull of laziness! I'm going to give it all I've got!

I am going to give it all I've got...plus the champagne!

The Pink Buddha is ready.,,,,

Why is it that everything that can go wrong, usually does? The works began to take on strong flavours of the latest Portuguese soap opera - there were nail biting cliffhangers and gut wrenching fear that it would not be ready. My preplanned week of 'rest and relaxation' before the first Pink Buddha restaurant did not happen - we were getting ready until almost the last moment. But as in all these situations, it did all come together after looking at its worst before it looked its best....and the studio lay in wait for its first visitors from the US, Spain and the UK, plus a bit of a do for the first night - the 'Grand Opening"!

People were met at the airport, settled into the lovely Lousada Country Hotel, and the first day of the workshop was spent in lots of great conversation and anticipation of the week ahead. Suddenly the tempo changed - people , including my wonderful friends Jane and Nat who had created The Pink Buddha Art Studios', friends, family and workshop attendees, began to arrive... out came the 'champagne', corks popped! I reverted instantly into my former Headmistress mode and made my speech. The most important part for me, apart from thanking Jane and Nat, and Isabel, for their tireless efforts, was to answer the question...who and what is this studio for I feel very passionately about opening up the studio to all, including the local community, to singles, small groups and independent travellers, to people who have never picked up a paintbrush, to people who don't need me but just want to come and paint for a while and have a comfy bed and meals cooked for them. It's all part of the dream.

Before Pink Buddha

I had a lovely house in the little town of Lousada in the lush green countryside of Northern Portugal. Nice house, small rooms, plenty of space for just me...until I started to paint. Anyone who knows me knows that I very quickly expand (even my waistline obeys this principle) to fit all available space ...so the first danger point was coming back home after my travels round the world. The house which had seemed okay filled up fast. Photos, souvenirs, posters, pictures, dangly things, huge wooden masks. They all came to stay. I started off in 2002 with the objective of a black and white minimalist house. HA!!!!!

Things looked bright and colourful - until my muse arrived. he arrived first in the shape of ever larger journals. Journals which cried out to be written, yes, a pen might suffice...but then they cried out for colour, so watercolours were purchased. I got interested - an influx of many books on the subject. Now I needed acrylic paints. Well, the story went on and my house started filling up with art supplies. Oh no...where can I work? My living room became my studio (no more dinner parties, what a relief!) with easels squeezed in. Did I mention easels? because another shift had begun...I had become a PAINTER. I devoured books, many courses, worked hard, got better, expanded and expanded...the story goes on.

My first journals and paintings appear in the first entries of the blog - best kept there I think!

What? No pictures yet?? No...because we have another player enter the scene. I forgot to say that beneath this cosy, crammed full little house lay a huge space known as the 'garage', 'the basement', 'downstairs` or, more commonly 'the dumping ground'. Whenever anyone cried out 'Where shall I put this - the answer came easily....DOWNSTAIRS. Stuff piled up in every nook and cranny. It was badly lit, few windows, no heating, the cats thought it was their exclusive territory...some piles were of the 'enter ye who dare' variety. But it had one huge advantage - it was VERY BIG INDEED!

Half tidied dumping ground!

Potential grasped

Pink! A light bulb! At some desperate moment, probably knocking an easel over yet again in a cramped space, the idea of a lovely studio entered my head. A place where there was room for everything, where I could do EVERYTHING I wanted - even put in an extra bedroom for when stars seemed too much. ...oooh...The studio could be used for workshops too, or a local gallery or...or....

and so The Pink Buddha Studio, so named in an Internet competition by someone who knows my relationship with the big man, and my current beau, the colour pink, .....and the garage, the local tip, was no more.

Enter Jane and Nat. Hard working friends, visionaries, transformers of dark into light and patient miracle workers...the process begins...

AND THEN THERE WAS PINK >>

Mother and son miracle team, Jane and Nat

Every pink spray can within a radius of 20 km disappeared from the shelves!

Every little touch that could be pink, was sprayed!

Pink Buddha is coming.....,he won't be long. He is emerging upstairs to come and help us all!